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FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT 

By IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND. 
Translated by Thomas Sergeant Perry. 



THE WIFE OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 
THE HAPPY DAYS OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE. 
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE END OF THE OLD 
REGIME. 

CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. 

MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE 

EMPIRE. 
THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. 




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^9 



* MARIE LOUISE 



AND THE 



DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE 



BY 



IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND ^^ 



TRANSLATED BY 
THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY 



^ WITH PORTRAIT "■'■-■■ *,~Y 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1890 



COPYRIGHT, 1890, 
BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 



\ 



^j- 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Marie Louise at Saint Cloud 1 

II. Moscow 9 

III. Malet's Conspiracy 29 

IV. The Retreat from Eussia 50 

V. The Emperor's Return G8 

VI. Adulation 82 

VII. The End of 1812 9(3 

VIII. The Concordat of Eontainebleau 109 

IX. The Count of Saint Marsan 124 

X. Count Otto 146 

XL The Count of Narbonne 169 

XII. The Regency 183 

XIII. LiJTZEN and Bautzen 195 

XIV. The Armistice 213 

XV. Mayence 225 

XVI. The Last Eestivities 234 

XVII. The Resumption of Hostilities 252 

XVIIL The End of 1813 271 

XIX. The Beginning of 1814 284 

XX. Marie Louise's Farewell 303 



MARIE LOUISE 

AND 

THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE 



MARIE LOUISE 



AND 



THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE. 

I. 

MARIE LOUISE AT SAINT CLOUD. 

MARIE LOUISE, after her triumphal progress 
to Prague, reached the Palace of Saint Cloud 
on her return July 18, 1812, and her arrival was an- 
nounced by the cannon of the Invalides. This para- 
graph appeared in the Moniteur of the 21st : " Paris, 
July 21st. A vast crowd took advantage of the 
beautiful weather yesterday to visit Saint Cloud and 
the neighboring country. At six in the afternoon 
the Empress drove through the park in a barouche. 
When Her Mo-jesty and the King of Rome appeared, 
warm cheers broke out on all sides, and accompanied 
Her Majesty all the way." Sunday, July 26, the 
Empress received, after mass at the palace, in the 
Apollo Gallery, the great bodies of state and persons 
who had been presented at court ; then going into the 
ball-room, she gave audience, with her accustomed 
grace, to the princes who held high positions, the 

1 



MABIE LOUISE. 



ministers, the high officers of the Empire, the Grand 
Eagles of the Legion of Honor, and the Diplomatic 
Body. 

Marie Louise was not Regent: Napoleon reigned 
and governed from the heart of Russia. An auditor 
of the Council of State carried to him every week the 
reports and propositions of the ministers. The Min- 
isters of Police wrote to him every day; and the 
Emperor also received confidential notes from people 
who, although they held no official position, were 
commissioned to write to him on questions of inter- 
nal policy, on the state of public sentiment, and 
even on literary subjects. From a distance of seven 
hundred leagues he directed his vast empire, with its 
one hundred and thirty departments, reaching from 
the Tiber to the mouths of the Elbe and the Scheldt, 
exactly as if he had been in his capital. 

It was not the Empress, but the Archchancellor 
Cambacer^s, who presided at the meetings of the min- 
isters. " Marie Louise," says the Baron of Meneval, 
" had charge of nothing but the court presentations. 
Every Sunday she went to mass, at which any one 
who had been presented was allowed to be present. 
After mass she passed through the gallery before the 
chapel, speaking to all who were there : she also 
received on formal occasions. Her timidity was 
always noticeable, and her attempts to overcome it 
often gave her an air of awkwardness. Every even- 
ing she received men and women whose names were 
on the list of invited guests. The Emperor drew up 



MABIE LOUISE AT SAINT CLOUD. 3 

this list, and took pains to choose such as the Empress 
would like ; so she always on such occasions felt per- 
fectly at ease, and did the honors freely and grace- 
fully. She played billiards with such persons as she 
chose : whist-tables were set, as a matter of form, in 
the drawing-room she was in, and the evening ended 
with singing or acting." 

Yet, in spite of all the homage of her attentive and 
obsequious courtiers, Marie Louise was sad. Far 
from her husband, her counsellor and protector, this 
woman of twenty felt lonely and homesick. When the 
Emperor was away, she felt like a foreigner in France, 
and longed for the country in which she had grown 
up. Her first impression on seeing Saint Cloud 
without Napoleon had been very painful. "May 
Heaven grant him a speedy return ! " she wrote to 
her father. " For this separation I find most painful, 
and I have not courage enough to keep from com- 
plaining." To all the pomp and splendors that sur- 
rounded her, to the river flowing at her feet, to the 
great capital she saw in the distance, to the venerable 
trees in the park of Saint Cloud, to the beautiful view 
glowing under the brilliant sun, she might have said 
with the poet : — 

" You miss one person, and all is empty." 

Every evening when she was enjoying the coolness 
of that lovely garden, her thoughts turned with mel- 
ancholy to the rash husband who was forever defying 
fortune. Why, she would ask with a sigh, does he 



MARIE LOUISE. 



not take his wife and son with him ? Would he not 
be as happy in this beautiful park as in the wild 
steppes of Russia? Had he not fought battles 
enough, faced enough dangers, gathered all the 
laurels he needed ? Was the empire which reached 
from the Eternal City to the Hanseatic towns too 
small for the ambition of the younger son of a poor 
Corsican family ? Should he not be satisfied with the 
control of such an empire ? And had not the King 
of Italy, the Protector of the Confederation of the 
Rhine, the Mediator of the Swiss Confederation, 
the son-in-law of the Emperor of Austria, and the 
father of the King of Rome, the right to rest ? The 
unbroken calm that prevailed in the young Empress's 
peaceful retreat presented a marked contrast with 
the terrible convulsions that were agitating the other 
side of Europe. But Marie Louise was often beset 
with gloomy presentiments ; when lost in revery she 
seemed, amid the silence of the gardens, to be listen- 
ing to the distant echoes of a terrible war. It was 
in vain that her courtiers continually told her that 
Napoleon could not be beaten; her good sense said 
that no man in the world was invincible or immortal. 
She tried to forget her gloomy thoughts in her affec- 
tion for the little King of Rome. " My boy is very 
well," she wrote, August 9 ; " every day he becomes 
handsomer and stronger ; he can already walk alone ; 
he has fifteen teeth, but he has not be^un to talk." 
Marie Louise found much comfort in her active cor- 
respondence with her husband and her father, who, 



MABIE LOUISE AT SAINT CLOUD. 5 

much to her satisfaction, seemed closely united and 
much attached to each other. 

August 15, 1812, the Emperor's birthday was cele- 
brated with its usual splendor, and the Empress 
made a visit to the Tuileries. An enormous crowd 
greeted her with enthusiasm. No bad news had yet 
come from the seat of war, and every one expected 
that the wonders of Austerlitz, Jena, and Wagram 
were about to be repeated by this grand army, the 
largest and finest that France had ever sent forth. 
Absolute confidence prevailed, not among wise and 
thoughtful people, — for they already dreaded the 
future, — but among the multitude, who regarded 
Napoleon as a supernatural being, a sort of demi- 
god. 

A few weeks later, the conqueror's glory was to 
suffer a terrible blow, but in Paris, August 15, 1812, 
it was without a shadow. Early in the morning the 
firing of cannon announced the opening of the cele- 
bration. At noon the Empress-Queen surrounded by 
her ladies and officers in waiting received at the 
Tuileries, in the Throne Room, the princes holding 
high offices, the cardinals, the high officers of the 
Crown, the Grand Eagles of the Legion of Honor, 
the Princes of the Confederation of the Rhine, and 
every one who had admission to court. Napoleon 
was very anxious that no details should be omitted 
in his absence. Then the Diplomatic Body was intro- 
duced to the audience with the usual formalities. 
When it was over, the Empress betook herself to the 



MARIE LOUISE. 



chapel of the palace to hear mass, Avhich was said by 
her First Almoner, Count Ferdinand de Rohan : it 
was followed by a Te Deum. That evening Paer's 
opera, Numa^ was given in the palace theatre, and 
when it was over, Marie Louise made her appearance 
on the balcony of the Hall of the Marshals, and was 
greeted with rapturous applause from the garden and 
terraces. From the balcony she listened to an out- 
door concert. Then there were fireworks on the 
Place de la Concorde, after which the Empress 
returned to Saint Cloud. 

The Grand Army also celebrated the Emperor's 
birthday, and desired to fire on the remote banks of 
the Dneiper some salvos in Napoleon's honor. All 
the marshals went with their staffs to present the 
compliments to their sovereign. At that moment 
the cannon sounded in sign of joy, and when the 
Emperor complained of the waste of precious ammu- 
nition, the marshals, with ingenious flattery, answered 
that the powder that was used had been captured 
from the Russians at the battle of Krasnoe. Alas ! 
neither he nor his soldiers had any suspicion of the 
terrible disasters that were to befall them three 
months later at that very spot. But yet they were 
depressed : the original faults of the fatal expedition 
had begun to show themselves. Desertions were 
very frequent; the heat, as excessive as was to be 
the cold, had reached 90° F. The army was growing 
wearied of this region of plains and marshes into 
which it was plunging imprudently, without getting 



MABIE LOUISE AT SAINT CLOUD. 7 

sight of the enemy ; of this war in which it found 
everything destroyed before it ; of the alarming soli- 
tudes, the vile roads, the wooden towns which a 
single torch had sufficed to set ablaze. Already aban- 
doned by Turkey and Sweden, from which aid had 
been expected, too timid to restore Poland in spite of 
all the heroism it displayed, losing an illusion every 
day after he crossed the Niemen, Napoleon, who no 
longer had the health or the ardor of his earlier days, 
could not say again what he had said at the begin- 
ning of the campaign : " A more favorable combina- 
tion of circumstances could not occur. I feel that it 
is leading me on." The conqueror was indeed led 
on, but by fate to the abyss. Possibly he already 
regretted that he had not remained at Saint Cloud, 
in that charming spot where his wife would have cele- 
brated his birthday Avith such affection, and he might 
have celebrated that of the King of Rome. How 
many tears, how much bloodshed, he would have 
saved! Less than 'three years later Bliicher w^as to 
establish his headquarters in this same Palace of Saint 
Cloud, which, as well as all the Imperial palaces and 
all his grandeur, wealth, and glory, Napoleon might, 
with a little wisdom, so easily have preserved. The 
tailors of the enemy's army set up their workshops 
in the theatre. Prussian soldiers caught goldfish in 
the large basin under the palace windows. Bliicher 
slept mth his dogs in the chamber of Marie Louise, 
turning that abode of luxury into a kennel and a 
smoking-room. July 12, 1815, he invited Prince 



8 MABIE LOUISE. 



Metternicli to dinner in the dining-room of the 
palace, and when after it he was walking with the 
Austrian minister through the Apollo Gallery, he 
said, "What a fool a man must be, who when he 
has all these fine things at home, has to run off to 
Moscow I " 



II. 



MOSCOW. 



nVTAPOLEON was impatiently awaiting the battle 
jj\ which should throw open to him the road to 
Moscow. September 6, 1812, the sun shone on thou- 
sands of helmets, bayonets, and cannon on the heights 
of Borodino, and the Emperor, who had bivouacked 
the previous night on the left bank of the Kolocza, 
in the midst of his guard, had the satisfaction of see- 
ing the Russians in position and determined to fight. 
At nine o'clock in the morning a civilian arrived be- 
fore his tent. He had travelled eight hundred leagues ; 
and all the way from Saint Cloud, his starting-place, 
to the Imperial headquarters, he had found the road 
full of soldiers, marching alone or in companies ; the 
wounded returning home, prisoners going to the rear, 
artillery trains, vehicles of every sort; in short, an 
unending crowd: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, 
and yet other nations, seemed to be meeting on this 
narrow way. Napoleon received this new arrival 
with warmth. It was the Baron of Bausset, Pre- 
fect of the Palace, who brought him news from the 
Empress Marie Louise, and a portrait of the King of 



10 MABIE LOUISE. 



Rome, the masterpiece of the great artist Gerard. 
This portrait was packed in a box which filled the 
whole top of the carriage. M. de Bausset thought 
that in view of the decisive and long-expected battle 
that was to be fought the next day, the Emperor 
would not care to have the box opened ; but he was 
much mistaken. Napoleon forgot all other occupa- 
tions in his desire to gaze upon his son's features. 
The child's gentle face presented a great contrast 
to the formidable preparations for the obstinate and 
bloody struggle of the morrow. Then he placed the 
picture before his tent, and summoned the officers of 
his household to share with them his paternal joy. 
" Gentlemen," he said to them, " you may be sure 
that if my son were fifteen years old, he would be 
here, among so many brave men, and not in a pic- 
ture." A moment later he added, " It is an admira- 
ble portrait." All day long the painting remained 
before the father's tent, and the soldiers of the Old 
Guard were never tired of looking at it. 

No day, indeed, was ever calmer than the one 
before that great battle. Not a shot was fired, as if 
hostilities had ceased by agreement. Why should 
needless harm be wrought? Was not the next day 
to decide everything ? In the night the laughter of 
the French, who are always merry, even in the face 
of death, and the hymns of the Russians, who had 
been invoking the celestial sword of Saint Michael the 
Archangel, had at last been silenced in sleep. Both 
armies were peacefully sleeping around the great fires 



MOSCOW. 11 



that they had lit against the cold and the dampness 
of a penetrating rain which had fallen in the evening. 
Napoleon did not sleep; the sudden change of the 
weather affected him ; he v/as feverish and troubled 
with a dry cough. Worn out in body and mind, he 
in vain tried to quench his consuming thirst. One 
of his aides heard him speaking about the emptiness 
of glory. "What is war?" asked the winner of so 
many battles. " A barbarous business ; its whole art 
is nothing but being the stronger at a given point." 
Then he added, "A great day is approaching. It 
will be a terrible battle." And terrible it was to be. 
Napoleon was to be victorious, but victorious with- 
out capturing any cannon, any flags ; victorious, but 
with forty-seven of his generals and thirty-seven of 
his colonels killed or wounded ; victorious, but the 
defeated were also to remain on the battle-field, and 
the enormous number of ninety thousand men, what 
would be the whole population of a large city, were 
to be stretched on the earth, wounded or dead. 

Napoleon was not himself. Through fear of the 
future he did not dare to call on the Imperial Guard, 
who would have made the victory decisive. " Every 
one about him," says the General de S^gur, " gazed 
at him with astonishment. Previously in hot com- 
bats he had displayed a calm activity; but now it 
was a dull calm, an inactive, flaccid gentleness. Some 
thought it was the prostration that follows intense 
emotion ; others that he was tired of everything, even 
of the glow of the battle. Many have noticed that 



12 MABIE LOUISE. 



this calm persistency, this coolness which great men 
exhibit on momentous occasions, turns with time into 
indifference and sluggishness, when their fervor is 
dulled by age. The most zealous explained his im- 
mobility as due to the necessity of avoiding excessive 
change of place, when in command of a long line, 
lest it should be impossible to communicate with the 
commander-in-chief." Alas ! why had he not stayed 
at Saint Cloud? 

The victory itself was silent and sombre. In the 
face of this huge slaughter, the generals ceased to 
flatter him. During the contest. Marshal Ney, indig- 
nant that Napoleon refused to make use of the Guard, 
exclaimed angrily: "What's the Emperor doing in 
the rear of the army ? That is the place for defeat, not 
for success. If he doesn't want to fight himself, and 
is no longer general, and wants to be Emperor every- 
wliere, let him go back to the Tuileries, and let us 
command in his place ! " When Napoleon returned 
to his tent, a deep melancholy was added to his physi- 
cal sufferings. There is nothing gloomier than war 
when one is ill. As he himself said, "Health is 
indispensable in time of war; nothing can take its 
place." The Emperor, who had known how to con- 
quer, was unable to take advantage of his victory. 
He stayed for three days at Mojaisk, the victim of 
a severe fever, and was compelled by the loss of his 
voice, to write, instead of dictating, his orders. At 
last, September 12, he was well enough to go to the 
front in his carriage. He was but two days from 
Moscow. 



Moscow. 13 

Moscow ! it was the magic name, the proud name 
which amid their perils and sufferings the soldiers 
kept repeating to give themselves courage. Moscow 
they looked forward to as an oasis after the blood- 
stained desert. So, September 14, at two in the 
afternoon, when the French army reached the Moun- 
tain of the Salute (so called because there the Rus- 
sians cross themselves and prostrate themselves at 
the sight of their holy city from its summit), and 
thence looked doAvn on the many-colored city spark- 
ling in the sun, with its two hundred and ninety-five 
churches, its terraces, its steeples with golden balls, 
its fifteen hundred castles, its vast gardens, its colos- 
sal Kremlin, their surprise, delight, and enthusiasm 
exceeded all description. Every soldier forgot his 
past sufferings; every heart glowed with military 
pride, patriotism, and the glow of conquest, and all 
burst into rapturous applause. At the height of his 
power Napoleon cried out, " There's the famous city 
at last ! " Then he added, " And high time, too ! " 

Nevertheless, as if warned by a secret voice of the 
abyss that was about to open before him, the con- 
queror, with something very unlike his usual audac- 
ity, did not at first establish himself in Moscow. 
He merely entered a little way, then, turning round, 
he stopped at an inn in one of the suburbs of the 
city, Dragomilof, and spent the night there. The 
next day, September 15, since all seemed calm, he 
conquered the presentiments of the previous evening, 
and made a triumphant entry into the Moscovite 



14 MARIE LOUISK 



capital. He had imagined that the keys of the city 
would be res23ectfiilly brought to him by delegates of 
the population, and that he would make a grand 
entrance into Moscow, as he had already done into 
Berlin and Vienna, amid a vast crowd which should 
feel for him as much admiration as awe. It was a 
great mistake : the city was deserted, and the soldiers 
were the sole spectators of their own glory. The 
footfalls of the cavalry horses alone broke the dis- 
turbing and solemn silence of the great city, which 
seemed dead. Five-sixths of the inhabitants had dis- 
appeared, and those who remained had hidden them- 
selves. The streets and public places were solitudes. 
Thousands of blackbirds, crows, and rooks were flut- 
tering about the belfries of this strange city, which 
wore a more Asiatic than European aspect. 

By the side of the stone bridge over the Moskowa 
stands the Kremlin of the Ruricks and Romanoffs, 
with its staircase outside, the long, straight stairway 
called the Red Staircase, with the terrace running 
along outside of the Hall of the Czars, with its pal- 
ace of Peter I. to the left, with the arsenal and two 
huge bronze mortars, and two gigantic cannon at 
each side of the mam door, — the Kremlin with the 
church of Ivan the Great, the church with its lofty 
tower, its gilt domes, and its legendary cross. Napo- 
leon was exultant, and in an outburst of pride he 
said : " At last I am in Moscow ! I am in the old 
Palace of the Czars ! I am in the Kremlin ! " And 
he ascended to the top of the tower of Ivan the 



3fOSCOW. 15 



Great, and thence looked down haughtily upon his 
conquest, through which wound the Moskowa. It 
was a solemn and mighty moment, — the culminating 
moment of an incomparable pyramid of glory and 
colossal power. 

Let us pause here a moment. In a few moments 
Providence was to give the signal for this giant's fall, 
and the death agony of the immense empire, an 
agony which was to last two years, was about to begin. 
Fire had already broken out in different parts of the 
city, but they were supposed to be unimportant acci- 
dents, the results of the soldiers' carelessness. That 
evening Napoleon went to sleep in the Kremlin, and 
possibly dreamed of glory and greatness. Certainly 
before he closed his eyes he did not foresee the ter- 
rible catastrophe which was about to break forth. 
Meanwhile the fire was spreading in every direction 
before the equinoctial winds ; they ran for the fire 
engines, but there were none, and the truth became 
clear. The governor, Rostopchin, had commanded 
convicts to set fire to the sacred city as if it were the 
meanest villaofe on the Smolensk road. It was a 
terrible sight : drunken men were running about 
with torches, uttering horrid cries ; savage women, 
fierce criminals, were hurrying through the flames, 
which they fed with wood dipped in pitch. 

Napoleon still slept, and no one dared to wake him. 
At last the light of the sun and the fire aroused him, 
and he rushed to the window, exclaiming: "So that's 
the way they make war ! The civilization of Peters- 



16 MABIE LOUISE. 



burg has deceived us. They are nothing but Tar- 
tars." 

The danger was ever growing; blazing cinders 
were falling upon the tow gunswabs which were 
spread out on the ground in front of the Kremlin, 
and threatened to set them on fire. There were four 
hundred caissons of ammunition in the courtyard; 
the arsenal was full of powder; the Emperor and 
his guard were sure to be blown up if a single one 
of the cinders had fallen on a single caisson. The 
merest spark might change the fate of the world: on 
such slender threads hang the fates of conquerors 
and of empires ! There was the sorest anguish ; it 
was rumored that the Kremlin was ruined, and that 
Napoleon and his fortune were about to disappear in a 
sea of fire. The fury of the fire grew wilder; it roared 
and surged like waves in a storm. The incendiaries 
were shot wherever found, and their bodies were 
thrown into the flames they had themselves lit. The 
city was a mere shell of crumbling ruin ; the air was 
full of smoke and ashes. The windows of the Krem- 
lin we^ejuielted and fell in fragments. His officers 
ran to Napoleon and earnestly addressed him: " Leave, 
Sire, leave, we beseech you." 

At first the conqueror refused to leave his prey, 
but his persistence was vain : the fire was stronger. 
Conquered by the conflagration, he yielded and left 
the place. It was a terrible moment, prophetic of 
all that destiny would compel him to abandon. He 
hurried down the great northern staircase, famous 



MOSCOW. 17 



for the massacre of the Strelitzes, but there he was 
hemmed in by a sea of flames which blocked every 
exit. What was to be done ? Napoleon could neither 
advance nor retreat. Fortunately there was descried 
a gate opening on the Moskowa, and through this 
narrow passage the fugitive escaped from the Krem- 
lin. But his danger had only begun ; now he had 
to plunge into the city, Avhich was all a fiery 
furnace. A narrow, winding street, alread}^ afire^ 
was to be seen, and into that the Emperor plunged. 
All about him roofs Avere falling, arches crumbling, 
beams crashing down : it was like one of the circles 
of Dante's Inferno. A few staunch friends proposed 
to the Emperor to cover him from head to foot with 
their cloaks and to carry him to safety in their arms ; 
he refused, and hastened on over the glowing cinders. 
His gray overcoat was burned in many places ; his 
hair was singed. At last, as if by miracle, he made 
his escape from the accursed city, and that evening 
he found quarters, a league away, on the Saint Pe- 
tersburg road, in the castle of Petrovski, the summer- 
house of one of the Emperor Alexander's chamber- 
lains. 

When Napoleon awoke the next day, September 
17, he looked at Moscow : the horizon was all aglow; 
the fire, so far from going out, was burning with 
redoubled violence. He exclaimed sadly, " This 
betokens great misfortunes ! " Yet he did not lose 
heart; he wished to defy fortune again, and with 
greater audacity. Since one of Russia's two capitals 



18 MARIE LOUISE. 



was burned, lie wished to march on the other ; but 
his lieutenants murmured: "What! no rest? Are 
we to march again ? To push on to the north ? To 
go to meet the winter, as if it would not come soon 
enough?" When the Emperor took counsel with 
them, they all dissuaded him from this course. One 
day at Saint Helena he said, "If it had been the 
month of August, we should have marched on Saint 
Petersburg." In the middle of September it was too 
late. 

The burning of Moscow lasted through the 17th 
and the 18th ; the 19th it slackened ; the 20th it 
stopped. Since the Kremlin had escaped, Napoleon 
went back thither, imagining that his presence in the 
city of the Czars, even if it were in ashes, would 
augment his glory, and that the Emperor Alexander 
would decide to sue for peace. 

At the Kremlin Napoleon occupied a vast but 
nearly unfurnished apartment ; he had there his little 
iron camp-bed, which he always carried with him to 
the castles in which he slept in his campaigns. His 
windows looked out on the Moskowa. Being struck 
by the vast number of crows and ravens that were 
cawing about, he said, impatiently, " Heavens ! are 
these birds of evil going to follow me everywhere ? " 
He found consolation in looking at the portrait of 
the King of Rome, which he had placed in his bed- 
room. Marshal Davout wrote to his wife, September 
22 : "I have seen the portrait of the King of Rome. 
I can say nothing about the likeness, for I have never 



MOSCOW. 19 



seen the young Prince, but the painting seemed to me 
admirable. The Emperor seemed to examine the 
portrait with a great deal of pleasure, with much 
more, indeed, than one would have thought possible 
amid so many cares." 

The Emperor's court at the Kremlin consisted of 
the principal officers of the army. There Avere also 
present Count Daru, Secretary of State ; the Count of 
Turenne, Chamberlain and Keeper of the Wardrobe; 
the Barons of Saluces and of Lambertye, equerries. 
Couriers took eighteen days to come from Paris, and 
there was not a day in wliich nev/s from France 
failed to reach the Kremlin. Besides the couriers, 
mail-coaches plied between Paris and the imperial 
headquarters. Moreover, every week an auditor of 
the Council of State brought the work of the 
Ministers and carried it back to Paris, when it had 
been signed by the Emperor. There was also the 
usual active correspondence with the European 
courts. 

Illusions still prevailed. Marshal Davout, that 
man of iron, wrote from Moscow, October 10, to his 
wife: "All the fatigues of the campaign have dis- 
appeared ; the faces of the men are cheerful ; their 
bearing is excellent. The position of the French 
army is such that if the Russians desire any chance 
to escape complete destruction, they must long for 
peace and try all means to secure it." October 4, 
still maintaining his heroic illusions, the Marshal 
wrote again : " All our dangers are over, and I have 



20 MARIB LOUISE. 



no doubt that the enemy, if he wishes to escape the 
risk of total destruction, will open his eyes and sue 
for peace. They have burned a large part of Mos- 
cow, but there are enough houses left to quarter the 
army, and enough supplies to feed it. The enemy 
have ruined their empire for ages to come by this 
atrocious act, which will harm only them. We have 
repaired our losses and rested since our arrival much 
more fully than could have been expected. Every 
day we grow stronger in every respect." 

The soldiers had found rich booty in the cellars 
of the houses that had been burned, — wine, liqueurs^ 
clothes, furs, — and had recovered their usual gaiety, 
forgetful of the past and careless of the future. A 
company of French comedians, under the direction 
of an actress, Madame Burray, was acting in the 
pretty little theatre of the Posniakoff Mansion, which 
the flames had spared. The first play given was the 
Sports of Love and OJiance. This frivolity presented 
a curious contrast with events more terrible than any 
tragedy. '' There was no cabal," says the Baron of 
Bausset, " either in the audience, which was composed 
of soldiers, or on the stage, where there was no odious 
rivalry. The pit was filled with soldiers, and the two 
rows of boxes occupied by officers of every branch of 
the service. The orchestra was very good; it con- 
sisted of the band of the Guards. There were eleven 
performances. Napoleon was never present ; but the 
Prefect of the Palace had found another entertain- 
ment for the Emperor. Among the strangers who 



MOSCOW. 21 



had remained in Moscow was an excellent tenor, 
named Tarquinio, whom he had sing Italian airs in 
the Kremlin. It was not a light matter," adds M. de 
Bausset, " to have been able, amid all the ruins that 
surrounded us, to organize so speedily a court con- 
cert and a town theatre." 

Napoleon also thought of sending to Paris for the 
company of the Theatre Fran^ais, and he was within 
an ace of sending them an order to start from Paris 
for Moscow, for he meant to pass the winter there ; 
moreover, every one in Paris, even Marie Louise, 
thought that was his intention. 

At the first review, on the grand Place of the 
Kremlin, of the regiments already decimated, but 
still, through their ingenuity and devotion, present- 
ing a martial, almost a faultless air, the Emperor said 
to his aide-de-camp, " Well, my dear Narbonne, what 
do you say about such a fine army manoeuvring 
under such a bright sun?" "I say. Sire," was the 
reply, " that it is already rested and can start for its 
winter quarters in Lithuania or^in Poland, and leave 
to the Russians their capital in the state to which 
they have brought it." Napoleon cast a long glance 
at his troops, but said nothing. 

He still lulled himself with vain hopes of some 
arrangement with the Czar. He said to a Russian, 
M. de Jakowleff : " This war is embittered by a des- 
peration which is due neither to Alexander nor me. 
Your Emperor is deceived, and the English are 
inflicting on Russia a blow which will bleed for a 



22 MAEIE LOUISE. 



long time. Since Smolensk I have passed through 
nothing but burning towns and villages. Your patri- 
otism is mere madness. Peter the Great himself 
would call you barbarians ; and what would he say if 
he were to breathe the ashes of Moscow? Rostopchin's 
madness costs you more than ten battles. Besides, 
what has this fire profited you ? Are there not enough 
houses left for my generals ? Do not my soldiers find 
abundant stores in your cellars? But, once more, 
I didn't come to your capital to settle down there. 
I should have halted at the gates, I should have 
quartered my army in the suburbs, I should have 
declared Moscow a neutral town, if Alexander had 
said a word. That word I waited for several hours ; 
I desired it. The slightest step would have shown 
to me that Alexander still felt in the bottom of his 
heart some trace of attachment to me. Then we 
should have promptl}^ made peace without outside 
interference. He would have said to me, as he did 
at Tilsit, that he had been cruelly deceived about 
me, and everything .would have been quickly for- 
gotten. Instead of that, you see where we are ! 
How much blood has been shed, what evils encom- 
pass us, from not understanding each other ! " 

Napoleon's great mistake lay in thinking that Mos- 
cow was like Berlin and Vienna. He had counted 
on a war in accordance with the rules, and he found 
a savage war. He was like a duellist who should 
expect a small sword and faces a club. This is 
expressed by Count Leo Tolstoi, in his War and 



MOSCOW. 23 



Peace, — a book in which all the passions of 1812 are 
revived : " After Smolensk," he says, " a war began 
to which none of the usual traditions could be ap- 
plied. The burning of the towns and villages, the 
retreating after the battles, the continual attack of 
marauders, the guerilla warfare, were all outside of 
the usual rules. Napoleon, who halted at Moscow 
in the correct attitude of a duellist, felt this more 
than any one, and he never ceased blaming Kutusoff 
and the Emperor Alexander ; but in spite of his com- 
plaints and the mortification of certain high person- 
ages at seeing the country fight in this way, the 
national club arose in a threatening fashion, and 
Avithout troubling itself about the good taste or the 
rules, smote and crushed the French, until by sheer 
dint of brutal and ponderous strength it had com- 
pletely repulsed the invasion ! " And the Russian 
nobleman, excited by the memory of this patriotic 
hatred, adds: "Happy the people who, instead of 
offering the handle of their sword to the generous 
victor, grasp the first club within reach, without stop- 
ping to think of what others would do in the same case, 
and who do not lay it down before wrath and ven- 
geance have given place in their hearts to contempt 
and pity ! " 

Napoleon kept waiting for a message of peace, but 
no message came. " What shall I do ? " he asked of 
Count Daru. "Stay here," replied the faithful offi- 
cer; "turn Moscow into an entrenched camp and 
spend the winter here." "That is bold advice," 



24 MARIE LOUISE. 



resumed the Emperor. "But what would they say 
at Paris ? France would not become accustomed to 
my absence, and Prussia and Austria would take 
advantage of it." Was it indeed possible to remain 
motionless for six months two hundred leagues from 
Wilna, three hundred from Dantzic, seven hundred 
from Paris, with the prospect of being hemmed in, 
not merely by the snows of winter, but by all the 
forces of Russia ? 

His genius, once so swift in forming plans and so 
audacious in carrying them out, was no longer itself ; 
he hesitated, fumbled, changed his mind. At one 
moment he decided to push on, then to remain sta- 
tionary, then to retreat. He was no longer the man 
whose slightest word seemed the decree of fate ; he 
ceased to be the all-powerful master who had made 
fortune his slave. How often he had blundered I 
No one of his courtiers could again call him infallible. 
He had made a mistake in venturing into the north 
before he had completed the subjection of Spain ; in 
failing to secure, before starting, an alliance with 
Sweden and Turkey ; in beginning the war too 
early, in view of the political conditions, too late, in 
view of the time of year ; in not following his victory 
on the Moskowa, and in yielding to an excess of pru- 
dence after an excess of rashness ; and in prolonging 
a fatal delay at Moscow. " Don't I know," he said, 
"that Moscow has no military value? Moscow is 
not a military position ; it is only a political position, 
I am thought to be a general there, when in fact I am 



MOSCOW. 26 



an emperor." Then he went on to say that a sov- 
ereign ought never to acknowledge a fault; that he 
would thereby only lose reputation and glory; that 
he should push on, and his persistency would insure 
success. His common-sense told him that he ought 
to have known that the terrible winter would not 
await his permission to fall upon him; that all his 
guns, were they as numerous as the waves of the sea 
or the stars in the sky, would be of no avail against 
the storms and the snowdrifts : Napoleon knew all 
this, but to withdraw, to retreat, would be to lose 
his reputation as an infallible and invincible man. 
What would France, what would England say? 
What would be the verdict of posterity? Time 
slipped by, and the bright autumn weather only 
nourished his illusions. 

The Emperor, held fast in the Kremlin by an irre- 
sistible force, became more and more undecided. Gen- 
eral de Segur describes him as he was at that time, 
languid, sitting long over his meals, which formerly 
were simple and brief, lying down for hours at a time, 
and, novel in hand, waiting for the conclusion of his 
own terrible career. " " Having reached the height of 
his glory, he doubtless foresaw that this first step 
backward would be the signal of its decay ; hence he 
remained motionless, lingering yet for a few moments 
upon this summit." He would not own it to himself, 
that, like an aeronaut who has risen to too great a 
height, he had to descend or die. What was his 
employment during the last hours of his stay in the 



26 MARIE LOUISE. 



City of the Czars? He discussed the merit of the 
new verses he had received from Paris, and spent 
three evenings in drawing np the regulations of the 
Comedie Frangaise. In the morning of October 15, 
he took a puerile pleasure in dating this decree from 
Moscow. That evening, in the drawing-room which 
he occupied at the Kremlin, just beneath the Czarina's 
apartments, when the candles were lit, and a huge fire 
was blazing in the fireplace adorned with marble and 
gold, he spoke with satisfaction of the decree that he 
had that morning signed, in order to get in this friv- 
olous distraction some relief from the secret anguish 
which rent his soul without betraying itself upon his 
face. Then he strode up and down the room, talking 
freely about art, literature, Corneille, and Talma. 

Nevertheless, time pressed. October 13, there fell 
a slight frost, without in the least disturbing the fine 
weather, indicating to all that the time had come for 
a final decision : if Moscow was to be abandoned, there 
was not a moment to lose. October 18, a beautiful 
morning, just when the Emperor was reviewing Mar- 
shal Ney's corps, the sound of cannon was heard in 
the direction of the outpost of the King of Naples ; 
the Russians had resumed hostilities without even 
proclaiming a truce. There could no longer be any 
question of negotiations for peace. Napoleon hesi- 
tated no longer. Moscow was to be abandoned the 
next day. 

The illusions prevailed up to the last moment. 
October 17, two days before the retreat began, Mar- 



MOSCOW. 27 



shal Davout wrote to his wife : " The Emperor has 
never made a finer campaign. In three months he 
has conquered the enemy's capital, and defeated the 
large armies which they cannot form anew. It Avas 
high time to make this campaign ; the preparations 
of the Russians were very formidable, and if we had 
not met them when we did, they might have had 
great advantages. Now they have only cavalry left : 
their infantry amounts to nothing; for an ignorant, 
untrained militia cannot be counted. Whatever may 
be the hostile spirit of the government and the influence 
of the English, it is probable that in a iew months, 
when their fervor is exhausted, they will become con- 
scious of their misfortunes, and Avill be anxious for 
peace as the sole means of safety." 

Before leaving, Napoleon desired to carry away, 
as a memorial of his brief conquest, the huge golden 
cross surmounting the steeple of Saint Ivan the Great. 
He meant to place it above the dome of the Invalides 
in Paris. But it was not easy to detach it from the 
Russian monument; and while the workmen were 
busy at this work of destruction, amid the cawing of 
innumerable crows. Napoleon exclaimed, " Doesn't it 
seem as if these crows were defending the cross ? " 

October 19, Moscow was full of movement from 
early dawn; the hour of departure had struck. It 
was an exodus like those in ancient times when 
whole nations were emigrating. The files were inter- 
minable ; there were a hundred thousand soldiers ; 
besides them, forty thousand men and women of all 



28 31 ABIE LOUISE. 



ages; numberless vehicles of every sort followed; 
handsome barouches, heavy carts, heavily loaded am- 
munition wagons, wheelbarrows laden with booty, 
more than five hundred and fifty cannon, two thou- 
sand artillery wagons : the men were sturdy and 
healthy, the women anxious, the horses lean and ex- 
hausted. Every language was spoken in this motley 
cohort ; there were countless trophies won from the 
enemy, — Russian, Persian, and Turkish flags, and the 
huge cross, the cross of Saint Ivan, so heavy that it 
had to be abandoned on the way, as a cumbersome 
burden. Was it an army or a vast caravan, this 
strange medley of the most dissimilar things ? In 
the broad avenue of Kalouga, by which they left 
Moscow, eight wagons drove abreast ; and though this 
vast mass was not interrupted for a moment, the 
exodus which began in the early morning had not 
ended by evening. A bright sun, in a cloudless sky, 
lit up the first day of this retreat, the most la^menta- 
ble known to history ; and when they reached the 
Mountain of the Salute which, a few weeks before, 
they had ascended with so much joy, the fugitives 
turned a last look upon Moscow and its ruins. 



III. 



MALET S CONSPIRACY. 



EVER since the month of October, uneasiness 
had begun to spread in France ; contradictory 
rumors were in circulation. Some said that the Em- 
peror had met with serious disasters ; others that, not 
content with conquering Russia, he designed to con- 
quer India. It was generally expected that he would 
spend the winter at Moscow, and this prospect did 
not inspire confidence. Although he announced a 
victory, that of the Moskowa, the 18th bulletin of 
the Grand Army, which was printed in the Moniteur 
of September 27, produced a gloomy impression. It 
was felt that it was not one of those decisive battles, 
like Austerlitz, Jena, or Wagram, which terminate a 
war by a crushing blow. 

From the Imperial headquarters at Mojaisk, Sep- 
tember 10, 1812, Napoleon had addressed to the arch- 
bishops and bishops of his empire a circular letter, in 
which he said: "The passage of the Niemen and 
the Dnieper; the battles of Mohilof, Potolsk, Os- 
trono, Smolensk, and finally the battle of the Mos- 
kowa, all call upon us to render thanks to the God of 

29 



30 - MARIE LOUISE. 



our armies. It is hence our desire that, on receipt 
of these presents, you make arrangements with the 
proper persons. Collect my people in the churches 
to offer their prayers in conformity with the rites 
and ceremonies of the Church in such circumstances. 
This letter being intended only for this purpose, I 
pray God to hold you in his keeping." In the Moni- 
teur we read: "To-day, Sunday, October 4, 1812, 
Her Majesty the Empress and Queen went to the 
Palace of the Tuileries ; she heard mass in the 
chapel, and was present at the Te Deum sung in 
honor of the victories of His Majesty the Emperor 
and King. After the mass there was a reception. 
After the reception Her Majesty returned to the 
Palace of Saint Cloud. A Te Deum was sung the 
same day in the cathedral." 

In spite of this commanded thanksgiving, much 
uneasiness prevailed. The continuance of this vast 
war, to which no end could be seen, excited general 
alarm. Every one said it was to be a second edition 
of the Spanish war. Banking, commerce, and indus- 
try were suffering severely. Many families were 
already in mourning. " In Paris," says the Duke of 
Rovigo, in his Memoirs, " every one had a map of 
Russia, in which were stuck pins at all the places 
mentioned in the bulletins. Everywhere informa- 
tion was anxiously sought about an army in which 
every one had a brother, a son, or a friend." 

The burning of Moscow produced a general feel- 
ing of alarm; the confident calmness of the official 



MALET'S CONSPIRACY. 31 

language satisfied no one. The 22d bulletin of the 
Grand Army, dated September 27, and published in 
the Moniteur of October 14, was yet noteworthy for 
its tone of calm and optimism. " Consul-General Les- 
seps," it said, " has been appointed superintendent of 
the province of Moscow. He has organized a city 
council and many committees, all composed of the 
inhabitants. The fires are completely extinguished. 
Every day there are discovered stores of sugar, skins, 
and clothes. The enemy's army appears to be retir- 
ing on Kalouga and Tula. Tula contains the largest 
manufactory of arms in Russia. Our advance guard 
is on the Pakra. The Emperor is quartered in the 
Imperial Palace of the Kremlin. In the Kremlin 
there have been discovered many ornaments used for 
the coronation of the Emperors, and all the flags cap- 
tured from the Turks in the last hundred years. 
The weather is like that of the end of October in 
Paris. It rains a little, and there are occasional white 
frosts. It is asserted that the Moskowa, and the 
rivers of the country, do not freeze before the mid- 
dle of November. The greater part of the army is 
cantoned at Moscow and is resting from its fatigues. '^ 
Judging from his bulletins, Napoleon was as tran- 
quil and happy in the Palace of the Czars as in his Im- 
perial country places of Saint Cloud, Compiegne, or 
Fontainebleau, and one would have said that the win- 
ter was never coming. But the auditors of the Council 
of State who returned to Paris from Moscow with the 
portfolio, who had seen the terrible ravages of the 



32 MAEIE LOUISE, 



fire, who knew the enormous losses which the army 
had ah^eady suffered, and had seen the Emperor's 
embarrassment and indecision, were only too fearful 
of the approaching disasters, and their alarm spread 
rapidly in official circles and in the Parisian drawing- 
rooms, though everywhere else perfect peace prevailed. 
The capital and the provinces uttered no murmur. 
Napoleon, at a distance of seven hundred leagues 
from his empire, was feared and obeyed as if he had 
been on the spot, and the numberless wheels of the 
government turned with perfect regularity. 

Marie Louise was living in perfect quiet in the 
Palace of Saint Cloud, when, in the night of October 
22, there broke out the most unexpected and strange 
conspiracy. There happened to be at that time in a 
private hospital in Paris, kept by Dr. Dubuisson, in 
a house to the left of the Faubourg Saint Antoine, 
near the Barri^re du Tr6ne, a former general of 
Moreau's army, who passed for a fanatical Republi- 
can, and in 1807 had been accused of secret plot- 
ting against the Emperor ; but being regarded rather 
as a lunatic than as a real conspirator, he had at first 
been confined in the Conciergerie, but afterwards had 
been transferred to a private hospital. His name was 
Charles Francois de Malet, and he was born at D51e, 
June 28, 1754. In spite of his reputation as an 
ardent Republican, he was descended, on both his 
father's and his mother's side, from the old nobility 
of Franche Comte, and under the old regime he 
had served among the musketeers in the King's 



MALET'S CONSPIRACY. 33 



household. His attitude as a prisoner was not stoi- 
cal. He had written, July 3, 1810, to the Duke of 
Rovigo, Minister of Police : " My Lord, I am detained 
for having repeated a few possibly indiscreet, but yet 
in no way really reprehensible remarks, which became 
serious only through the perfidious way in which 
they were interpreted. The first ground which I 
bring forward, in trying to persuade Your Excellency 
to put an end to a long and undeserved detention, is 
the zeal and devotion which I have at all times shown 
in His Majesty's service, as is set forth in a memorial 
wherein, without mention of my former service, I 
speak only of those I have rendered to His Majesty 
since the establishment of the Empire." Thus the 
pretended Brutus bowed before the Csesar, but hated 
him all the while. He was convinced that the Impe- 
rial Colossus had feet of clay, and in the month of 
October he thought the time ripe for carrying out 
the fantastic plan which had haunted him for many 
years. The means that he devised at the first glance 
seem childish, and it is surprising that they could 
have succeeded for even an hour. 

To pretend that the Emperor had died in Russia 
October 8 ; to make this falsehood the keynote of 
the conspiracy ; to invent an alleged report of an 
alleged extraordinary session, pretended to have been 
held in the evening of October 22 ; to invent likewise 
a decree of the Senate abolishing the Imperial gov- 
ernment, appointing a provisional government, and 
setting General Malet at the head of the Post of 



34 MAMIE LOUISE. 



Paris of the first military division ; to escape secretly 
from Dr. Dubuisson's private hospital ; to have two 
silent companions, one disguised as an aide-de-camp, 
the other as Commissary of Police; to go to the Pop- 
incourt barracks ; there to read the false decree to the 
commander of the 10th cohort ; by means of forged 
orders to take this band as an armed force ; to go to 
the Prison de la Force and set free Generals Lahorie 
and Guidal, who were confined there for political rea- 
sons, to make them his accomplices, without saying 
anything to them about it before they were set free, 
and then with the aid of the 10th cohort to proceed 
to arrest the Duke of Rovigo, Minister of Police, the 
Duke of Feltre, Minister of War, M, Pasquier, Prefect 
of Police, General Hulin, Commander of the Post of 
Paris ; to have prepared at the H6tel de Ville the 
quarters destined for the provisional government ; to 
do all this in the night between the 22d and the 23d 
of October, and in the morning of the 23d to proclaim 
the Revolution, — such was the outline of the plot. 

At first General Malet took into his confidence 
only three persons, — a Royalist abbd, named Lafon, 
who was in the private hospital with him, and helped 
him prepare the forged orders ; and two young men, 
Rateau, a corporal of the Guard of Paris, and Bon- 
treux, a law student : the first was to take the part 
of the aide ; the other, that of Commissary of Police. 
October 22, 1812, at about ten in the evening, the 
general made his escape from Dr. Dubuisson's house 
and went to the rooms of a Spanish priest, in the 



MALETS COySPIRACY. 35 

Place Royale, to put on his uniform, which he had 
instructed his wife to send thither. Here he found 
the two young men, who dressed themselves for the 
part they had to play. It was raining in torrents, 
and to pass the time they ate a supper and brewed a 
punch. It was half-past three in the morning when 
the general and his two acolytes began their expe- 
dition. They went first to the Popincourt barracks 
where the 10th cohort was quartered. No one was 
allowed to enter the barracks at night; so Malet pre- 
tended that he wanted to see only Colonel Soulier, in 
command of the 10th cohort. He was conducted 
to the colonel's quarters, Avhich were outside of the 
barracks. He had him waked up, and pretending 
that he was not General Malet, but General Lamotte, 
— for this whole affair was one mass of lies, — he said 
to the commander of the 10th cohort, "I see that you 
have not heard the news ; w^e have had the misfor- 
tune to lose our Emperor." On hearing this. Colonel 
Soulier, a good and brave man, though of a credulous 
nature, burst into tears. " The government has been 
changed," went on the pseudo-General Lamotte, "and 
here is an order which General Malet gave me to 
hand to you a moment ago." This order commanded 
that the cohort should fall into line, ready for action ; 
that it should be informed of the state of affairs, and 
be placed under the orders of the alleged General 
Lamotte. 

The colonel obeyed without questioning ; he called 
out his men, and had read to them the forged decree 



36 MARIE LOUISE. 



of the Senate, and they marched out, twelve hundred 
men strong, under the command of Malet, who called 
himself General Lamotte. Only one company remained 
in the barracks. It was to accompany Colonel Sou- 
lier to the HOtel de Ville, to prepare the rooms 
destined for the provisional government. The 
colonel was moreover promoted to the post of briga- 
dier-general, and received an order on the Treasury 
for one hundred thousand francs. 

Malet was delighted with the success of his first 
step. The second was to go to the Prison de la 
Force to set free Generals Guidal and Lahorie, and 
to get them to join in his undertaking, of which they 
had not yet heard a word. He passed through the 
rue Saint Antoine at the head of the 10th cohort, 
and when he reached the prison, he had the doors 
opened without difficulty, embraced the two generals, 
announced to them the Emperor's death, and told 
them what they would have to do. " There is not a 
moment to be , lost," he said to them. "Here are 
your instructions : take these troops and carry them 
out. I need only a half-company to seize the gov- 
ernment. Then we shall meet at the H6tel de 
Ville." General Lahorie was charged with the 
arrest of the Prefect of Police ; he was, besides, with 
the aid of General Guidal, to proceed to arrest the 
Ministers of War and of Police. As for General 
Malet, he reserved for himself the most difficult task, 
— the arrest of the Commander of Paris, General 
Hulin. 



3fALET'S CONSPIRACY. 37 

Everything passed in accordance with the con- 
spirators' wishes. M. Pasquier, the Prefect of Police, 
was a gentle and inoffensive man ; he had already 
got up and was at work in his office when they came 
to arrest him, and he submitted to his arrest with the 
best grace in the world, got into the cab, and was 
driven to the Prison de la Force together with his 
first assistant. Savary, the Duke of Rovigo, Minister 
of Police, made a little more resistance, but seeing 
that his life was threatened, he yielded. He de- 
scribes his arrest in his curious Memoirs. General 
Lahorie, formerly chief of staff of the Army of the 
Rhine, had been his comrade in the first Revolution- 
ary campaigns, and knew him intimately. " You are 
under arrest," Lahorie said to him ; " congratulate 
yourself on falling into my hands; no harm shall 
come to you." Savary did not understand. Lahorie 
went on, " The Emperor was killed, October 8, 
under the walls of Moscow." "What stuff you are 
talking! " answered the Duke of Rovigo. " I have a 
letter from him of that very day. I can show it to 
you." A few moments later. General Guidal came 
in, sword in hand, and he placed the point on 
Savary's breast, who exclaimed, " Have you come 
here to disgrace yourself by a cowardly assassina- 
tion ? " " No," replied Guidal ; " I am not going to 
kill you, but you must come with me." " Very well ! 
yes; but let me put on my clothes." "I'll have 
them brought here." Savary, who before General 
Guidal came, had tried in vain to undeceive the 



38 MABIE LOUISE. 



soldiers, dressed as slowly as possible, in order to gain 
time. Then he was driven in a cab with Guidal to 
the Prison de la Force, accompanied by a few soldiers 
of the 10th cohort. 

On the way, as he was passing along the Quai des 
Lunettes, an idea occurred to him : he devised a way 
of escaping ; he quietly opened the carriage door, 
and when he got near the clock-tower, he sprang out 
and ran towards the Palais de Justice. But he was 
at once pursued with cries of " Stop him ! stop him ! " 
and soon caught. He was brought back to the car- 
riage, and a few minutes later was behind lock and 
key in the Prison de la Force. 

At the Prefecture of the Seine, that is to say, at 
the H6tel de Ville, everything proceeded as smoothly 
as General Malet could have wished. Count Frochot, 
Prefect of the Seine, had spent the night in the coun- 
try, and was not to return to Paris till the morning. 
He was not at the H6tel de Ville when Colonel 
Soulier arrived there at the head of a part of the 
10th cohort and announced the Emperor's death, and 
that he was going to take possession of the rooms 
destined for the provisional government. An official 
of the Prefecture was at once sent off for the Prefect. 
The bearer of this message met him in the rue du 
Faubourg Saint Antoine on his way to Paris, uncon- 
scious of what was going on, and handed the note 
inviting him to come as soon as possible, and ending 
with these words, " Fuit imperator,^^ As soon as he 
reached the H6tel de Ville, he found Colonel Soulier 



i 



MALET'S CONSPIRACY. 39 



there, and was shown the forged orders. Resistance 
seemed impossible, and making no objection, he had 
the rooms prepared for the meeting of the provisional 
government. 

In three points, then, — the Ministry of Police, 
the Prefecture of Police, and the Prefecture of the 
Seine, — General Malet's plan had been perfectly suc- 
cessful. The delay in the Duke of Rovigo's arrest 
made a delay which prevented that of the Minister of 
War. It was in the Place Vend^me, the staff-office of 
the Post of Paris, that the conspiracy fell to pieces. 
Malet went there himself with a detachment of the 
10th cohort. He broke into the room where General 
Hulin and his wife were sleeping, bade him get up, 
and said to him, '' I have come to bring you sad news ; 
the Emperor is dead. A decree of the Senate, dated 
yesterday, has abolished the Imperial government, 
and I have been ordered to take your place. I have 
an even more painful duty to perform : it is to place 
you temporarily under arrest." Then a voice issued 
from the alcove; it was that of Madame Hulin. 
"But, my dear," she said, "if this gentleman is to 
take your place, he must have some orders to show 
you." " True," exclaimed General Hulin ; " where 
are your orders, sir ? " " My orders ? " replied Malet ; 
" here they are ! " and with his pistol he shot down 
Hulin, breaking his jawbone. Then he quietly 
descended the staircase and proceeded towards the 
door of the neighboring house, which was occupied by 
the staff ; there he found Adjutant-General Doucet, 



40 MABIE LOUISE. 



Commander Laborde, and a police inspector. This 
last recognized him, and said, " M. Malet, you have 
no permission to leave your house unless I go for 
you." Then turning to Adjutant-General Doucet, 
he added, " There's some mischief up ; arrest him at 
once ; I will go to the Ministry to see what this thing- 
means." Malet was standing against the fireplace ;" 
seeing that the game was up, he seized a pistol which 
he had in his coat pocket, to blow out Doucet's brains; 
but this officer had seen the motion in the looking- 
glass, and suddenly sprang on the bold conspirator, 
escaping the shot. At the same moment Commander 
Laborde grasped him about the waist, shouting, "To 
arms ! " Malet was flung to the ground and bound 
hand and foot. In this condition he was carried to 
the balcony, from which Colonel Doucet called out 
to the soldiers of the 10th cohort, that they had been 
deceived by an impostor. The conspiracy was over. 
By noon everything went on as usual ; the Duke of 
Rovigo had established himself again in his ministry, 
and M. Pasquier had returned to the Prefecture of 
Police. The preparations at the Hotel de Yille for 
the alleged provisional government vanished in the 
twinkling of an eye. It all seemed like a dream. 

It is interesting to notice how General Malet pro- 
posed to treat the Empress. In an order which was 
not carried out, he had commanded General Deriot, 
Chief of Staff and Commander of the Stores of the 
National Guard, to occupy at once Sevres, Ville 
d'Avray, and Saint Cloud ; the intention was to pro- 



MALET'8 CONSPIRACY. 41 

vide for the Empress's safety. The order contained 
these words : " We have become responsible to the 
whole nation for the life of Marie Louise, both for 
the national honor and for the guarantee she gives us, 
so long as she is in our power, as to the conduct of 
the Emperor of Austria towards France. As soon as 
you shall have completed your arrangements, you 
will do well to go to Saint Cloud, to reassure this 
Princess with regard to the condition of things, until 
the government shall have done this through the 
regular channels of diplomacy." 

As soon as the conspirators had been arrested, the 
Minister despatched the Horse Guards to Saint Cloud. 
They reached there on a gallop, and made a great 
clatter in the palace courtyard. Marie Louise was 
much surprised by this unexpected disturbance, and 
ran out on the balcony in her dressing-gown, with 
her hair flying. She had a moment of alarm, at 
least for her son if not for herself, and ordering 
under arms the infantry in the palace, commanded 
preparations for defence. Shortly word came from 
Paris that order was completely restored, and that 
there was absolutely no occasion for fear. Never- 
theless, the affair left a painful impression on the 
Empress's mind ; for she was already able to see the 
future treachery of her husband's officers. 

The next day, October 24, 1812, the Parisians read 
in the Moniteur this statement, which was j)lacarded 
on the walls of the Capitol: "Three ex-generals, 
Malet, Lahorie, and Guidal, deceived the National 



42 MABIE LOUISE. 



Guards and led them against the Minister of Police, 
the Prefect of Police, and the Commander of the post 
of Paris, against whom they used violence. They dis- 
seminated the j:eport of the Emperor's death. These 
ex-generals have been arrested ; they are convicted 
of imposture ; they will be brought to justice. Per- 
fect calm reigns in Paris ; there was no disturbance 
except in the three buildings visited by these brig- 
ands." 

The cruel deception of which the Duke of Rovigo 
had been the victim, was for the Parisians, who are 
always malicious and sharp-tongue d, an occasion for 
numberless jests and jeers. Friends and enemies of 
the Empire alike laughed at it. A Minister of Police 
arrested, a Minister of Police humbugged, a Minister 
of Police imprisoned, was a godsend to the merry- 
makers ! Punning on the name of the prison to 
which they had been carried, it was said that the 
Minister and the Prefect of Police had made a " tour 
de force." Referring to the fact that the Minister's 
wife, alarmed by her husband's nocturnal arrest, had 
run out of her room in her chemise, they said that 
" in the whole affair, the person who made the best 
appearance was she." The ladies, who were frequently 
annoyed by the interference of the police, were avenged 
by this adventure, and said, " They would do much 
better to busy themselves with what goes on in the 
barracks than with what goes on in our boudoirs." 

Yet the affair was more sad than laughable. The 
Duke of Rovigo, in his Memoirs, thus sums the mat- 



MALET'S CONSPIRACY. 43 

ter up: "Had it not been for the accident which 
prevented the arrest of the Minister of War and 
returned me to my duties, General Malet would have 
been in control of a great many things in a very 
short time, and in a country very susceptible to the 
contagion of example. He would have had control 
of the Treasury, which was then well filled, of the 
posts and the telegraph, and there were in France a 
hundred cohorts of the National Guard. He would 
have learned by the couriers arriving from the army 
the lamentable state of affairs there, and nothing 
would have stood in the way of his seizing the 
Emperor, if he had come alone, or of marching to 
meet him, if he had come with troops." To these 
pessimistic views the Duke of Rovigo adds these 
words : ''In spite of this, Malet would not long have 
played the part of a second Cromwell, because the 
deception Avould have been soon found out, and every- 
body in France was tired of agitation. Probably he 
would have been alone in carrying out his further 
plans. But the danger that threatened the public 
peace was a serious one ; and it exposed a weak 
point in our position which every one thought more 
secure. A special cause of surprise was the readi- 
ness with which the soldiers believed in the Em- 
peror's death, without its occurring to a single officer 
to seek confirmation of the statement, and above all, 
without thinking of his son. . . . This Avas a pain- 
ful thought, and those who did not like to deceive 
themselves were compelled to think that trouble 
was in the air." 



44 MABIE LOUISE. 



What was not a subject of laughter was the rigid 
severity with which General Malet and his accomplices 
were treated, whose great fault had been excessive 
credulity. The trial, which took place before a mil- 
itary commission, began October 27. One of the 
judges said to Colonel Soulier, " I ask you how it 
could happen that a superior officer should lose his 
head when Malet came to him and told him, ' I bring 
you important news ; the Emperor is dead.' On 
hearing that, a loyal officer ought to have all his 
presence of mind. It is just on occasions like that, 
it should be understood, that soldiers do not lose their 
heads, and that the Emperor is immortal. When the 
Emperor dies, one shouts, ' Long live the Emperor ! ' " 
When the presiding officer asked Malet who were his 
accomplices, he answered quickly, " All France ; you 
yourself, sir, if I had succeeded." After the speech 
of the government advocate, he arose, and said, "A 
man who has assumed the defence of his country's 
rights does not need to plead ; he triumphs or he 
dies." A delay was asked in favor of Colonel Sou- 
lier, who had wept on hearing the alleged death of 
the Emperor, but this delay was refused him. Within 
five days there were arrested, tried, and condemned, 
fourteen unhappy men ; and of these, twelve, includ- 
ing Generals Malet, Guidal, and Lahorie, were shot. 

Malet was the only one who deserved death ; but 
let us rather quote from a conscientious and distin- 
guished author, M. Albert Duruy, who, in the Revue 
des Deux Mondes for February 1, 1879, published an 



MALET'S CONSPIRACY. 45 



article on Malet's conspiracy, both interesting and 
novel. "Consider," he says, "those plumed and 
bedizened personages, who vanished at the moment 
of danger like the decorations of the opera, and when 
seen again were doubly obsequious ; consider, on the 
other hand, those improvised judges, so contemptuous 
of the rights of the defence and of the simplest rules 
of justice, so eager to finish with the affair, and you 
cannot escape a painful feeling. The viciousness of 
excessive centralization makes its appearance in its 
most odious form, and in view of this general confu- 
sion, it is easy to understand the successive crumbling 
of the forms of government that followed. All, in 
various degrees, rested on public officials ; and in 
critical moments there has always been a lack of the 
energetic aid and solidity which should have been 
looked for." 

In foreign countries the article in the Moniteur^ 
announcing at once the conspiracy and its failure, 
produced a great impression. November 4, 1812, 
Count Otto, French Ambassador at Vienna, wrote to 
the Duke of Bassano, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
who was then at Wilna : " My Lord, on receipt of the 
article inserted in the article of the Moniteur of 
October 24, concerning the criminal attempts of ex- 
Generals Malet, Lahorie, and Guidal, the Emperor of 
Austria hastened to send a courier to his august 
daughter, to obtain news from her at the earliest 
possible moment. Your Excellency will readily 
believe that this article has produced the greatest 



46 MAMIE LOUISA. 



sensation here, and that the many enemies of France 
are already making numberless conjectures in regard 
to the consequences of a plot that has failed, but 
from which they nevertheless expect the greatest 
results. Inasmuch as it is a long time since we have 
had any direct news from our armies, some agitators 
pretend that our troops are really exterminated, and 
that His Majesty the Emperor is no longer living. 
Russia has especial advantages for disseminating in 
Europe false reports. A great many of its richest 
nobles, especially women, are to be found everywhere, 
living in the highest society, and attracting by their 
lavish expenditures a herd of parasites, who are ready 
to flatter them and to serve their purposes. It is to 
them that we must ascribe the wild rumors circulat- 
ing in Europe. I notice, in fact, by my letters from 
Milan and Paris, that the false news, so common 
here, flood likewise those two capitals : I may even 
add that for everything concerning Spain, Paris and 
Milan take the initiative." It was in vain that Marie 
Louise wrote to her father, November 21, 1812 : " I 
am not alarmed by the disorder which a few insane 
men have caused, for I know too well the good char- 
acter of the people, and their devotion to the Em- 
peror, to have a moment's fear " ; the blow had told. 
Up to that time the French administration and ex- 
cellent police had been regarded as the cornerstone 
of the Imperial government. From that moment, 
doubts were felt all over Europe concerning the 
solidity of the edifice, and people began to say that 



II 



i 



MALET'S CONSPIRACY. 47 



France, instead of resting, as had been supposed, on 
a firm rock, was perhaps over a volcano. 

Thiers has represented Malet's conspiracy as a 
wholly Republican plot. We are inclined to believe 
that it was rather a Royalist conspiracy. This is the 
thesis which M. Albert Duruy has supported with 
original documents, and with arguments that to us 
seem convincing. He tries to prove, and we think 
on good grounds, that this affair was only, so to 
speak, the first sketch, the prologue, of the Royalist 
movement of 1814. The ideas, the passions, the 
language, were the same. Of the Republic there was 
not a word either in the false decree of the Senate or 
in the other forged papers. The name of King was 
not uttered ; but it is evident that if he was not on 
the stage, he was at least just behind the scenes. 
Who were Malet's provisional government? General 
Moreau, President; Carnot, Vice-President; Count 
Frochot, Prefect of the Seine ; the Duke Mathieu de 
Montmorency ; the Count Alexis de Noailles ; Gen- 
erals Malet and Augereau, Vice-Admiral Truguet, 
Senators Yolney, Garat, Lambrecht, Destutt-Tracy, 
and Messrs. Jacquemont and Florent-Guyot. Was 
it possible in 1812 to make Moreau, the future gene- 
ral of the Coalition, pass for a Republican ? Could a 
Montmorency and a Noailles be counted as adherents 
of the Republic ? Is there anything RepubUcan in 
this sentence of the proclamation which the conspir- 
ator intended for the army : " Prove to the country 
that you were no more the soldiers of Bonaparte than 



48 MAEIE LOUISE. 



of Robespierre " ? And what must we think of this 
statement in the false decree of the Senate concern- 
ing " the despatch of a deputation to His Holiness, 
Pius YII., to beg him, in the name of the nation, to 
forget the evils he has suffered, and to invite him to 
come to Paris, before returning to Rome " ? To come 
to Paris I and why? Possibly to crown the King, 
after he had crowned the Emperor. And that other 
clause in the forged decree, promising amnesty for all 
military offences, even for desertion to foreign parts, 
and inspiring the wholesale return of every emigre, 
exile, and deserter : did not this do the work of the 
Royalists ? Moreover, who was Malet's principal 
fellow-worker? An ecclesiastic, the Abb^ Lafon. 
He succeeded in escaping, and in a history of the 
conspiracy wrote that General Malet was working, 
with Messrs. de Puyvert and de Polignac, in behalf 
of the re-establishment of the legitimate monarchy. 
And was not General Guidal an avowed Royalist, 
whose widow, in a letter written in 1816, recalled 
his services to the King, Louis XVIII. ? If Malet 
had not been shot in 1812, who knows whether he 
might not have been chosen Minister of War, two 
years later, instead of General Dupont ? Who knows 
whether, from the Royalist point of view, his plot 
might not have seemed a more meritorious action 
than the capitulation of Baylen? Malet doubtless 
thought that Jacobinism was more out of favor in 
France than Royalty. This madman, this victim of 
hallucinations, had, as it were, a vision of the future. 



H 



MALET'S CONSPIRACY. 49 



In the distance he had seen the throne of the Bour- 
bons restored, the white flag once more hoisted. 
This pretended Democrat, this so-called Brutus, of 
whom Republicans have made themselves the most 
ardent apologists, was, we may be sure, only a would- 
be Monk. 



IV. 



THE EETREAT FEOM RUSSIA. 

OCTOBER 23, 1812, tlie day when General 
Malet's conspiracy broke out in Paris, what 
was happening in Russia to the Grand Army? On 
that day Napoleon was manoeuvring about the little 
town of Maro-Jaroslawitz. He was deeply pained 
by being compelled to retreat, and had at first tried 
to give to his departure from Moscow the appearance 
of an advance ; and instead of taking the Smolensk 
road, by which he had come, had taken that of 
Kalouga, by which he hoped to reach a fertile coun- 
try where he might pass the winter in a mild climate. 
Five days after the evacuation of Moscow he came 
across the army of Kutusoff, and the bloody battle 
of Maro-Jaroslawitz was fought. Prince Eugene 
covered himself with glory. Eighteen thousand 
Italians and Frenchmen, massed in a ravine, defeated 
fifty thousand Russians, posted over their heads and 
favored by all the advantages which a town possesses 
when built at the top of a steep slope. The next 
day, October 25, the battle-field presented an even 

more ghastly spectacle than that of the Moskowa. 
50 



THi: RETREAT FROM RUSSIA. 51 

The same day the Emperor was surprised by a band 
of Cossacks, near Gorodnia, and narrowly escaped 
being made prisoner. 

The army was already the prey of the gloomiest 
forebodings, and yet the severe cold had not begun. 
The only way left was to take the shortest road to 
winter quarters in Poland, abandoning the march 
towards the south, proceeding to Mojaisk, and thence 
taking the road to Smolensk, as rapidly as possible. 
Napoleon felt that this was a most alarming plan, 
but the fear of having to fight a second battle with 
Kutusoff, thus giving the final blow to the Grand 
Army, already so weakened; of having to abandon 
the wounded, too numerous to be transported; the 
sight of all these horrors ; his reflections on his threat- 
ened capture by the Cossacks, — all these things made 
a deep impression on the Emperor and diminished 
the energy necessary for imposing his opinion. No 
one, not even he, believed any longer in his infalli- 
bility. It was October 26, after a council of war 
held in a barn at the village of Gorodnia, that he 
made the decision so painful to his pride and so fatal 
in its results : namely, to abandon the march towards 
the south and to return towards the north, taking as 
a fugitive the road by which he had come as con- 
queror. The whole march, since the evacuation of 
Moscow and the costly victory of Maro-Jaroslawitz, 
became useless. Seven precious, decisive days had 
thus been lost. Properly speaking, it was October 26 
that the real retreat began. 



5^ MARIE LOTflSR 



In gloom and discouragement the army proceeded 
sadly, and yet the sky was clear; no snow had fallen. 
October 28 they reached Moja'isk. When they saw 
again the battle-field of the Moskowa, lonely and 
desolate, silent and mournful, shorn of the terrible 
but poetic glow of combat, they were overwhelmed 
with painful emotion. The bare earth trampled and 
torn, the trees shattered by cannon-balls, the helmets, 
cuirasses, drums, littering the ground, the redoubt, 
which was the tomb of Caulaincourt and so many 
other heroes ; besides the chill of death, the frost 
which had stiffened the corpses half eaten by wolves 
and vultures, all formed a terrible spectacle. The 
silence of the plains was broken only by the cries of 
birds of prey. Alas I what had been the result of 
this dreadful battle in which had been fired sixty 
thousand cannon-shots and fourteen hundred thou- 
sand musket cartridges, and ninety thousand men 
had been killed or wounded ? What result had been 
obtained from all the powder burned, from all the 
blood shed? This was a bitter, inevitable thought, 
sure to dim the ardor and cool the enthusiasm of the 
hottest lovers of warfare. " Our hearts," says Baron 
Fain, " were filled with anguish at the sight of this 
plain where so many of our comrades had perished. 
They thought that they died for victory and peace. 
As we passed we stepped carefully, lest the earth 
should be too heavy on them beneath our retreating 
footsteps." 

Napoleon himself, steeled as he was against emo- 



THE RETREAT FROM RUSSIA. 53 



tion, shuddered with horror at the sight of this blood- 
stained field, and ordered that the soldiers should 
linger there as short a time as possible; for such 
a sight was for them an occasion of grief, and for 
himself one of self-reproach. The retreat continued, 
every day being more disastrous and more sanguinary 
than the one before. 

November 6, the Emperor was on the heights of 
Mikalenska, near Dorogobush, on the road to Smo- 
lensk, when a courier, the first for ten days, arrived 
from Paris. Napoleon stopped to read the despatches 
which brought him the news of General Malet's 
conspiracy. He turned to Count Daru and said, 
" Well I if we had stayed at Moscow — " Then he 
went into a palisaded house, which had been a post- 
station, and reflected bitterly on the news he had just 
received. " What ! " he said, with as much surprise 
as regret, " they did not think of my son, my wife, 
and the institutions of the Empire ? " Then turning 
towards General Lariboisiere, who had known person- 
ally the principal officers of Moreau's army, he added, 
" What did you think of General Lahorie ? " Lari- 
boisiere answered, " He was an officer of the highest 
merit, who would have served you well, if they had 
not tried to ruin him in your estimation ; he would 
have served you as General Eble does, whom they 
tried to make you think ill of, and whose character 
and talents you are able to judge every day." " You 
are right," resumed the Emperor. '' These fools, 
after letting themselves be deceived, are trying to 
make up for it by shooting men by the dozen." 



54 MARIE LOUISE. 



November 6, tlie very day when Napoleon received 
the news of Malet's conspiracy, the weather suddenly 
changed for the worse. The sky, which had been 
clear for several days, was suddenly covered with 
frosty vapors. The thermometer fell to zero ¥. 
Four weeks before, the Russian peasants had said to 
the Frenchmen : " You don't know our climate. In 
a month the cold will freeze your nails off." The 
prophecy came true. When the English Commis- 
sioner Wilson complained of delay, the old Kutusoff 
only said, "Let the snow come." The snow did 
come; earth and sky were one white pall. Could 
the Emperor have been surprised at the appearance 
of his crudest enemy, the winter? Did he expect 
to find in Russia the climate of Fontainebleau and 
Compiegne ? Did not he write in the 16th bulletin 
of the Grand Army, dated Yiazma, August 31, 1812, 
" The weather to-day is very fine, and we expect a 
continuance of pleasant weather until October 10, 
which will give us yet a campaign of forty days." 
And after he had written that, it was the 19th of 
October that he had chosen, not for the beginning 
of rest, but for opening the most dangerous and most 
terrible campaign that had ever been undertaken. 
When he saw the first snowfiakes flying, must he 
not have regretted the thirty-five days he lingered at 
Moscow ? 

The great disasters began at this moment. High 
winds and severe frosts prevailed ; a polar hurricane 
raged ; the snow, driven by the tempest, drifted into 



THE TtETREAT FROM RUSSIA. 55 



every ravine and hollow, hiding chasms into which 
the men slipped; all the furies seemed let loose at 
once to delay their march ; the blasts cut short their 
breath ; the snow concealed an ambush at every step ; 
the ice prevented men and horses from proceeding; 
the wind knew no respite ; the nights were sixteen 
hours long, and in them it was impossible to lie down, 
even to sit down, and at the ghastly dawn, the drums 
called to arms soldiers who knew no waking ! Those 
who escaped death looked more like phantoms than 
like soldiers. Their thin summer clothing was frozen 
on them. Their bleeding, shoeless feet they wrapped 
in old rags. Their guns slipped from their numb 
fingers. They had no more bread. The}^ could 
mlake no fires, for the wood of the trees was too 
green to burn. Moreover, warmth meant death. 
No sooner had they melted a little snow to mix with 
it a spoonful of rye or flour, than the Cossacks were 
upon them, hovering always about like . swarms of 
vultures, appearing and vanishing like spectres, slay- 
ing the wounded, capturing or killing the stragglers. 
" About the Emperor," says Baron Fain, an eye-wit- 
ness of these horrors, " the courtiers' smiles vanished 
from the lips that were most accustomed to wear 
them; every face bore marks of distress. The brave 
men, who wore no mask, were the only ones whose 
expressions did not change when cold and sleepless- 
ness left their harsh traces." The horses, uncalked, 
slipt and fell, never to rise. The cavalry had to 
march on foot; the artillery could not be drawn. 



56 MARIE LOUISE. 



No one could keep on a horse. Napoleon himself 
walked, with difficulty, stick in hand. The edge of 
the ditches was lined with wretches, who, overcome 
with cold, succumbed to a sleep from which only the 
last trump will wake them. 

Amid all these sufferings, one hope kept up the 
soldiers' spirits, — that of reaching Smolensk, where 
they expected to find in abundance reinforcements, 
supplies, clothes, and rest. They arrived there Novem- 
ber 9, but to meet a cruel deception. The supplies 
they had expected were wanting. Starving and 
infuriated, the soldiers broke open the shops and pil- 
laged them. Napoleon left Smolensk, November 14, 
at five in the morning: a longer stay would have 
been impossible. Kutusoff's army was not the only 
one to be feared; two other Russian armies, one 
commanded by Wittgenstein, the other by Tchitcha- 
koff, threatened to block the retreat. Time was 
precious ; not a moment was to be lost. Smolensk, 
which had been looked forward to as a promised 
land, was only one more illusion. The Grand Army, 
which, on leaving Moscow, had counted one hundred 
thousand men, had been reduced in twenty-five days 
to thirty-six thousand. They had to resume their 
march. 

" The elements had declared against France," said 
Pere Lacordaire, in his funeral oration over General 
Drouot. "Those heroic bands, which, from Lisbon to 
Moscow, from the Pyramids to Berlin, had met no 
conqueror, were surprised at last to feel their hearts 



THE RETBEAT FROM RUSSIA. 57 



heavy, their arms uncertain. Providence had given 
nature the signal, and these men, so often defiant of 
fortune, were for the first time overcome with weak- 
ness. Military art and courage could no longer save 
them ; they needed another art, another courage : 
they needed moral force, courage to endure and hope 
forever." All possible disasters seemed to have met 
at the same spot. Physical and moral tortures were 
combined. Nature seemed anxious to determine just 
how much men could suffer. Let us honor the brave 
men who were able to survive such harrowing trials. 
At Krasnoi, November 17, they had to fight a bloody 
battle to keep open the path for their retreat. In 
the heat of the action, the band of the grenadiers 
of the Old Guard, those sturdy veterans who made 
a rampart with their bodies about their Emperor, 
played calmly the familiar holiday air, " Where is 
one happier than in the bosom of one's family?" 

The retreat became even more perilous ; it seemed 
as if nothing short of a miracle could save the whole 
army, from Napoleon to the humblest soldier, from 
extermination. An anecdote which we quote from 
Villemain will show what feeling inspired these 
heroes. One morning when the dim dawn faintly 
lit the snoAvy field covered with the corpses of men 
and horses. Napoleon, lowering the window of the 
carriage in which he had spent the night, called his 
aide-de-camp, the General de Narbonne. " What a 
night, my dear General ! " he said. " It was not 
worse for our sentinels than it was for me, who spent 



58 MARIE LOUISE. 



it in thinking, without closing my eyes. See that 
they are relieved, and do you take this to revive you ; 
for courage alone can't keep a man warm with the 
thermometer below zero." With those words the 
Emperor had poured from a jug heated by an alcohol 
lamp, into a gold cup, a mixture of boiling coffee 
and chocolate. The general took the cup, but as he 
was raising it to his lips, he saw a grenadier of the 
Old Guard, on sentry duty, whose stern, worn face be- 
trayed his sufferings only overcome by courage. "My 
man," he said, " drink this ; I command you." The 
grenadier saluted, took the cup, and drained it with 
one draught, then, as if overwhelmed with remorse, 
he exclaimed : " General, how cold and hunger affect 
a man ! Ought I to have accepted that from you 
when you had it at your own lips ? I beg your par- 
don, and, on my word, I am thoroughly ashamed of 
myself now that my stomach is warm." And he 
respectfully handed the gold cup to the Count of 
Narbonne. " No, no," answered the general, " keep 
it I " Then the grenadier, saluting again, said : " No ; 
God forbid ! I have never taken anything but my 
pay and my rations when there have been any." 
When the general insisted, the grenadier, who had 
set the cup down on the snow, took it up and broke 
off a bit as large as a twenty-franc piece. " Since you 
order me," he said, " I will keep this Napoleon from 
the gold cup. It shall be my medal ; it will remind 
me that I had the honor to be on guard behind the 
Emperor's carriage, at this festivity, and to be 
relieved by you. General." 



THE llETREAT FllOM EUSiSIA. 59 

Marshal Davout said with noble pride, " We were 
conquered by the winter, not by the Russians." The 
stoical endurance of the Grand Army has wrung 
admiration even from foreigners. What is more 
epical, more impressive than General de Segur's 
description, which is almost a poem ? Heinrich Heine, 
the author of the Reisehilder^ said: "The heroes 
whom we admired in the Iliads we find again in 
Sdgur's poem. We see them deliberating, quarrel- 
ling, fighting as in old times before the Sceean gate. 
Although the helmet of the King of Naples was 
somewhat motley, his courage in action and his fear- 
lessness are as great as in the son of Peleus ; Prince 
Eugene appears before us like a gentle and brave 
Hector; Ney, like Ajax; Berthier is a Nestor ; Davout, 
Daru, Caulaincourt, recall Menelaus, Ulysses, and 
Diomed." 

Everything in Napoleon was colossal; his adver- 
sity as well as his prosperity. In his darkest days, 
shortly before the passage of the Beresina, he said 
to General Jomini, " When one has never known re- 
verses, they will be as great as his good fortunes." 
The Emperor of legend, in good or evil fortune, 
ever impresses posterity as a gigantic sphinx. In 
this figure, which is rather a product of fable than a 
historic fact, there is an attraction which fascinates 
even his enemies. The fierce patriotism of Count 
Leo Tolstoi is pained by this. " Strangely and ter- 
ribly enough," he says, " Napoleon is for the Russians 
themselves an object of admiration and enthusiasm ; 



60 MAEIE LOUISE. 



in their eyes he is great, while Kutusoff, who from 
the beginning to the end of 1812, from Borodino to 
Wilna, persevered in one plan, never varying in word 
or deed, an unprecedented example of the most abso- 
lute self-denial, seeing in what was happening about 
him the future results, is represented by them as a 
colorless being, deserving at the most of pity, a being 
whom often they mention only with ill-disguised 
shame." 

As the retreat continued, the sufferings and disas- 
ters only grew. On reaching Orcha, November 19, 
only about twenty-four thousand men under arms 
and about twenty-five thousand stragglers were left ; 
that is to say, about one-eighth of the four hundred 
thousand men who had crossed the Niemen. Two 
new Russian armies, those of Wittgenstein and Tchit- 
chakoff, were about to oppose the crossing of the 
Beresina. The situation appeared absolutely des- 
perate. Napoleon, feeling that all was lost, burned 
all the documents that he had carried with him in 
order to write his autobiography, — a distraction he had 
purposed to give himself if he had spent the winter 
at Moscow. He had the eagles of every corps brought, 
and ordered them to be burned. He collected in two 
battalions eighteen hundred dismounted cavalrymen 
of the Imperial Guard, of whom only eleven hundred 
and forty-four were supplied with muskets or car- 
bines. Of all the cavalry that had left Moscow, only 
a few mounted men were left. The Emperor collected 
about him all the officers of this army who had saved 



THE BETREAT FEOM RUSSIA. 61 

their horses, and transformed them into what he 
called his sacred battalion, in which generals of divis- 
ions served as simple captains. 

When they had come before the Beresina, Napoleon 
was in the most critical position of his whole eventful 
career. Three Russian armies, amounting to a hun- 
dred and forty thousand men," barred every passage, 
and enclosed in an iron circle what had once been 
the Grand Army. To cross the river in such circum- 
stances seemed impossible, yet Napoleon did not for 
an instant think of surrendering. His veterans said, 
" He will get us out of even this." 

How was he to bridge the Beresina? Everything 
impeded the task : the marshy banks of the river, the 
half-frozen water, the pieces of ice carried by the cur- 
rent, the Russians on both sides in vastly superior 
numbers. But the chief engineer. General Eble, had 
saved a caisson full of tires that had been thrown 
away, and these he had made into cramp-irons. This 
was the army's only chance for safety. The pontoon- 
makers were heroes who sacrificed themselves with- 
out a murmur. The whole night of the 25th of 
November they worked on without stopping, within 
range of the enemy's cannon and musketry, by the 
light of fires burning on the opposite bank. They 
worked in the same way all through the 26th. They 
were up to their necks in the icy stream ; they hardly 
stopped long enough to swallow a little unsalted soup- 
meat. There were a hundred of them, and of this 
number but five returned to France : all the rest died 



62 MAEIE LOUISE. 



from exhaustion and exposure. But they built the 
bridges and saved their Emperor. The 27th, thanks 
to their devotion, Napoleon was able to cross the 
river. When he reached the opposite bank. Napo- 
leon exclaimed, " There's my star again ! " He al- 
ways persisted in thinking that his star was shining 
even when the skies were blackest. " At this mo- 
ment," says Baron Fain, " one would have thought 
that a ray of sunlight pierced the snowy mist that 
encompassed us." 

Napoleon had crossed, but what was to become of 
the army? The plan of the Russians was to attack 
it on the two banks while crossing, and to drive it 
into the river. The two bridges — one for the infantry, 
the other for the artillery and baggage — were torn 
by missiles. A terrible confusion prevailed. Men, 
women, and children, crushed, suffocated, were strug- 
gling beneath the feet of their companions, whom 
they grasped with their teeth and nails ; shells were 
bursting ; men were swearing, shouting, groaning ; 
women were weeping ; children crying ; horses were 
plunging wildly ; cannon-balls were ploughing tlirough 
the surging mass ! Never did the world behold a 
ghastlier sight ; the reality surpassed Dante's most 
terrible visions ; no dreamer ever conceived any such 
circles of iron, of ice, of fire ! 

Most unfortunate were those who had not time to 
cross, who, worn out by their fatigue and their suf- 
fering, until they had lost the feeling of self-preserva- 
tion, lingered on the bank for a few moments' rest. 



THE EETEEAT FROM RUSSIA. 68 



The Russians advanced, and it became necessary to 
burn the bridges lest the Russians shoukl make use of 
them. Orders were given to set fire to them at seven 
in the morning. General Ebl^, out of humanity, 
delayed until nine o'clock ; but he had to obey then, 
and the fire vsras set. Clouds of smoke enveloped the 
two bridges, and the wretches who were on them 
jumped into the water lest they should be hurled in 
by their fall. From the crowd on the other shore, 
making ready to cross, there rose a terrible cry of 
anger and despair. Some sprang into the river, 
others upon the blazing bridges. They perished in 
the flames or the frost, victims of fire or cold, crushed 
beneath the wheels of the wagons or the horses' feet, 
or pierced by the bullets or cannon-balls of the two 
posts. Those left on the shore — some eight or 
ten thousand men, women, and children — were cap- 
tured by the Cossacks, who put many to death ; the 
rest were sent to Siberia. 

Thus, November 29, ended the crossing of the 
Beresina, which had begun on the 20th. It was 
a victory ; but one dearly paid for ! Napoleon was to 
stay but seven days longer with his troops. From 
the moment he had thus miraculously escaped from 
the Caudine Forks, he had but one thought, — to 
leave. 

As in Egypt, he Avas suddenly seized with an 
attack of homesickness. Always impatient and eager 
in carrying out his plans, he desired to return to 
Paris as he had desired to enter Moscow. The Tui- 



64 MARIE LOUIS± 



leries became his goal, as the Kremlm had been. He 
counted the days, hours, and minutes separating him 
from the moment when he should ascend the steps of 
the grand staircase of his palace. He had no remorse 
in stealing away from the fragments of the Grand 
Army, in going, like the Persian King whom ^schylus 
set on the stage, a fugitive and alone, '^ with an empty 
quiver." What could he do at the head of disbanded 
troops, without their uniforms, wrapped up in rags ? 
What would Germany — still submissive, but quiver- 
ing — say when it should see the ruler of the great 
Empire in this plight? From Wilna or Konigsberg 
he would be seen by Europe only in the light of a 
defeated man. From the Tuileries, on the other hand, 
he would still make an immense impression: there 
he would have with him his wife, his son, his Minis- 
ters, his Chamberlains, his flatterers. At his reviews 
in the Carrousel, he would see superb regiments, 
gorgeous uniforms ; Malet's conspiracy would be of 
some use to him ; it would give him a chance to com- 
plain, to appear as an accuser instead of the accused, 
to knit his brow like Olympian Zeus. And then if 
he did not leave, other Malets might rise. When 
that plot broke out, the disasters were yet unknown. 
The Emperor was thought to be at Moscow, enjoying 
an agreeable climate and preparing to spend a quiet 
winter in the Palace of the Czars. ** 

In Paris, not a word had been said about the 
retreat ; no one knew anything about the winter and 
its snows. Could the truth long be hid? Would 



THE BETBEAT FROM BIT SSI A. 65 

every officer's letter have to be intercepted? Only 
one man could make the Parisians accept the fatal 
news, and that was the Emperor. If he were present, 
he said to himself, there would be no rebellion, no 
murmuring. He would be obeyed and silently ; possi- 
bly he would be admired; and the great player, with- 
out delay or hesitation, prepared his vengeance in the 
face of a downtrodden Europe. 

Once decided. Napoleon tolerated no discussion. 
At Smorgoni, in the evening of December 5, he sum- 
moned the King of Naples, Prince Eugene, and the 
marshals, and announced to them his departure. " I 
shall leave you," he said ; " but it is to get three hun- 
dred thousand soldiers. We must make ready for a 
second campaign, since the first has not ended the 
war. . . . And why not? Our only conqueror is 
the cold, which came so early that it deceived even 
the natives. Schwarzenberg's counter-marches have 
done the rest. So the unheard-of audacity of an incen- 
diary, an unprecedented winter, cowardly intrigues, 
stupid ambitions, a few faults, possibly treachery, and 
shameful mysteries which will come to light some 
day, have brought us to our present condition. Was 
ever a good chance disturbed by more unexpected 
accidents? The Russian campaign will none the 
less be the most glorious, the most difficult, and the 
most honorable known to modern history." Then he 
gave deserved praise to his principal lieutenants, and 
appeared more affable and kindly than usual. He 



6^ mabi:e LomsE. 



confessed that every one, he himself like the rest, 
had blundered more than once in the campaign, and 
added, " If I had been born to the throne, if I were 
a Bourbon, it would have been easy for me to make 
no blunders." Then they sat down to table. After 
the supper the Emperor had Prince Eugene read the 
29th and last bulletin, which was to produce so ter- 
rible an effect. The reading finished, he said, "I 
leave at once for Paris with Duroc, Caulaincourt, 
and Lobau. My presence there is indispensable ; 
only from there can I restrain the Austrians and the 
Prussians. Without doubt they will hesitate to 
declare war against me when they know that I am 
at the head of the French nation and of a new army 
of twelve hundred thousand men, ... I make over 
the command to the King of Naples. I hope that 
the most perfect harmony will prevail among you." 

After these words Napoleon arose, shook hands 
affectionately with his lieutenants, embraced them 
all, and got into his carriage with Caulaincourt. On 
the seat were the Mameluke Rustan and a captain of 
the Guard, Wonsovitch, a Pole, who was to act as 
interpreter on the way. Duroc and Lobau followed 
in a sleigh. It was ten in the evening. The ther- 
mometer marked 18° F. 

The next day the army learned that the Emperor 
had left. It was in such a state of misery and dis- 
couragement that it paid scarcely any attention to 
the departure which, a few days before, would have 



THE RETBEAT FROM RUSSIA. 67 

caused a feeling of keen surprise and of profound 
disappointment. Every one felt that Napoleon was 
no longer the protector of his army ; that his genius, 
once capable of wonders, had suddenly become power- 
less, both against the winter and against fate. 



V. 



THE EMPEEOE S RETURN. 




ECEMBER 5, 1812, the day Napoleon left liis 
army like a fugitive, Paris was perfectly tran- 
quil. Salvos of artillery were fired as a signal for 
rejoicing, and to announce for the next day the anni- 
versary of the coronation and of the battle of Aus- 
terlitz. This holiday had been postponed from the 
2d of December to the 6th, because the 6th was a 
Sunday. That day the Empress Marie Louise was 
to leave the Palace of Saint Cloud and establish her- 
self for the winter at the Tuileries. At midday she 
received the Diplomatic Body, surrounded by the 
Princes, Ministers, Grand Eagles of the Legion of 
Honor, High Officers of the Crown, and the members 
of her household and of that of the Emperor. After 
the audience, she went to the chapel, where she heard 
mass and the Te Deum. In the evening, in the palace 
theatre, she heard Cimarosa's opera, the Horaces. 
Madame Grassini and Madame Sessi sang the princi- 
pal women's parts. The Tuileries and the city were 
illuminated ; and yet, wdiat cause was there for joy ? 
The real illumination was that of burning Moscow. 
68 



THE E3IFEE0E\S liETURN. 69 



It was not the playhouses, but the churches that 
should have been crowded, to pray for the dead, to 
try to avert God's wrath which had fallen so heavily 
on France. 

The bad news had not yet arrived, but a vague 
presentiment made every one uneasy. People said 
that the wonders of Austerlitz could not be repeated, 
and no one counted on the thunderbolts to which 
Napoleon had accustomed the world. No change 
was visible : officials and courtiers seemed to believe 
the Emperor's fortune eternal : the Empress's face 
was always calm ; but, in spite of her inexperience, 
the young sovereign was intelligent to detect the 
gradual modification of public opinion even before 
messengers came with the evil tidings. 

Meanwhile, Napoleon in his latest bulletins had 
made use of every euphemism to calm men's minds. 
His 25th bulletin, dated October 25, and published 
in the Moniteur of November 9, announced the evac- 
uation of the City of the Czars in these terms : " The 
Emperor left Moscow October 10. . . . Moscow is 
not a military position. Moscow has no longer any 
political importance, inasmuch as this city is burned 
and ruined for a hundred years. The Marshal of 
Treviso remains there with a garrison. The weather 
is very fine, like that in France in October, per- 
haps a little warmer. But early in November cold 
weather may be expected. Everything makes it 
necessary to ]3i'epare for winter quarters. This i^ 
necessary for the cavalry especially ; the infantry 



70 -V MARIE LOUISE. 



has rested at Moscow and is in excellent condition." 
The 26th bulletin, dated October 23, and published 
in the Moniteur of November 16, betrayed no anxiety. 
" The Duke of Treviso," it said, " blew up the Krem- 
lin October 23, at two o'clock in the morning. The 
arsenal, the barracks, the magazines, were all de- 
stroyed. This ancient citadel, which dates from the 
foundation of the monarchy, — this first Palace of the 
Czars, — has ceased to be. The Emperor intends to 
start the 24th, to reach the Dwina, and to take a 
position within eighty leagues of Saint Petersburg and 
of Wilna, — a twofold advantage, being thus twenty 
marches nearer both the means and the end. . . . 
The Russians are amazed at the weather of the last 
three weeks, in which we have had the bright sun 
and the pleasant days of our visits to Fontainebleau. 
The army is in a very fertile region, which compares 
favorably with those of France and Germany." 

The 27th bulletin, which was dated October 27, 
and appeared in the Moniteur of November 17, was 
equally optimistic: "The weather is superb, the 
roads are good ; it is the end of the autumn ; this 
weather will last for a week, and by that time we 
shall have got into our new positions. The Italian 
guard distinguished itself at the battle of Maro- 
Jaroslawitz. The old Russian infantry is destroyed. 
The Russian army now exists only by means of the 
numerous reinforcements of Cossacks recently arrived 
from the Don." The 28th bulletin, dated at Smo- 
lensk, November 11, and published in the Moniteur 



THE EMPEROR'S RETURN. 71 

of November 29, was not perfectly reassuring, but it 
did not tell a hundredth part of the disasters : " The 
weather was very fine until November 6, but on the 
7th the winter began. The earth is covered with 
snow. The roads have become very slippery, and 
very hard for the draught horses. We have lost 
many of them by the cold and fatigues. Since the 
storm of the 6th we have lost more than fifty thou- 
sand draught horses, and nearly a hundred caissons 
have been destroyed. The Emperor's health has 
never been better." 

Do not these bulletins read like cruel jests ? Could 
the truth be better hidden ? This terrible retreat, the 
most disastrous known to history, was represented as 
a strategic march, somewhat impeded by unfavorable 
weather. But public opinion was not reassured, and 
in spite of the official optimism, men began to think 
of nothing but ruin and destruction. 

For his part. Napoleon had skilfully prepared for 
his own return. Three days before leaving his army 
he had sent on as a forerunner, one of the aides of 
the Prince of Neufchatel, Major de Montesquiou, who 
was to inform Europe of some of the recent events, 
while setting them in a favorable light. The instruc- 
tions he carried ran thus: "Selitche, December 2, 1812. 
M. de Montesquiou v/ill leave at once for Paris. He 
will give the Empress the enclosed letter. On his 
way he will see the Duke of Bassano at Wilna, to 
inform him of the necessity of stopping individual 
soldiers, and of feeding them, and especially of pro- 



72 MARIE LOUISE. 



viding a great quantity of supplies, bread, meat, and 
brandy, in order to give tlie army abundance after its 
present distress. Everywhere lie is to announce the 
arrival of ten thousand Russian prisoners, and the 
victory gained on the Beresina, in which were cap- 
tured six thousand Russian prisoners, eight flags, and 
twelve cannon. He will also announce it at Kowno, 
Konigsberg, Berlin, and to M. de Saint Marson, and 
publish everywhere in the gazettes : ' M. de Mon- 
tesquiou, aide-de-camp of the Prince of Neufchatel, 
has passed through, bringing news of the victory of 
the Beresina gained by the Emperor over the united 
armies of Admiral Tchitchakoff and General Witt- 
genstein. He is carrying to Paris eight flags, taken 
from the Russians in this battle, in which six thou- 
sand prisoners and twelve cannon were captured. 
When this officer left, the Emperor Napoleon was at 
Wilna, in excellent health.' M. de Montesquiou 
Avill travel as rapidly as possible, in order to contra- 
dict everywhere false rumors. He will say that 
they tried to divide the French, who, however, scat- 
tered them to the four winds ; that they have reached 
Wilna, where they have found numerous stores, and 
that they will soon have recovered from their suffer- 
ings. On reaching Paris he will give the Empress 
details of the Emperor's good health, and the state 
of the army. Then he will await new orders." 

Napoleon continued his speedy flight. He did not 
even enter Wilna, but passed through Wilkowiski, 
where he changed his carriage for a sleigh, and in 



THE EMPEROR'S RETURN. 73 

the same clandestine way reached Warsaw December 
10. He did not even dare to go to his Ambassador's, 
M. de Pradt, Archbishop of Malines, but sought re- 
tirement in a wretched inn, where he had great diffi- 
culty in getting a fire lit. Caulaincourt called on 
the Ambassador, greatly surprising him by his unex- 
pected appearance. The archbishop at once went 
to the inn where the sovereign of so many nations 
resembled the obscurest traveller. The conqueror 
himself was struck by the contrast, and said to the 
Ambassador, with a forced laugh, " It's but a step 
from the sublime to the ridiculous." Then he added 
in a calm A^oice : " Who has escaped reverses ? It is 
true that no one has ever had any like these, but 
they had to be proportionate to my fortune, and 
besides they will be soon repaired." Then he sum- 
moned the principal Polish ministers, urged upon 
them absolute silence concerning his presence in 
Warsaw, promised to return speedily with three hun- 
dred thousand fresh troops, and continued his jour- 
ney under an assumed name, still accompanied by 
Duroc, Caulaincourt, Lobau, Captain Wonsowitch, 
and the Mameluke Rustan. 

Meanwhile M. de Montesquiou, in accordance with 
his instructions, had inserted in all the papers of 
Lithuania and Germany the statement that the 
Emperor was at Wilna in good health, but at Wilna 
no one had seen Napoleon. Every one was Avondering 
what had happened. Had he disappeared like Romu- 
lus in a storm ? Had he fallen into the hands of the 



i 



74 MARIE LOUISE. 



Cossacks ? Was he buried in the snowdrifts ? Had 
some German fanatic stabbed him ? Was he a pris- 
oner? or dead? Nothing was known about this man 
who a moment before had stood forth before a dazed 
world as an Agamemnon, king of kings, as a second 
Charlemagne ! From Lithuania to the heart of Aus- 
tria the rumor suddenly spread that he was no longer 
alive, and the breath of whole nations paused in sol- 
emn expectation. The sleigh was gliding on, and no 
one who saw it passing like a flash over the plains of 
Poland and Saxony imagined that the fragile sleigh 
was carrying Csesar and his fortunes. 

December 14, the illustrious fugitive reached Dres- 
den by night and took quarters, still incognito, 
at the Ambassador's, M. de Serra. At Dresden, 
where a few months before he had held a magnificent 
court of kings and princes, and where his face was 
distinctly remembered, he had to take the greatest 
precautions to escape recognition. He received se- 
cretly the King of Saxony, the best and most faithful 
of his allies, and tried to reassure him by grand prom- 
ises. Then he wrote this letter to the Emperor of 
Austria : — 

"December 14, 1812. My Brother and My 
Dear Father-in-law : I stop for a moment at Dres- 
den to write to Your Majesty and to give you news of 
myself. In spite of rather severe fatigues, my health 
has never been better. I started from Lithuania 
the 5th of this month, after the battle of the Beresina, 
leaving the Grand Army under the orders of the King 



THE EMPEROR'S RETURN. 75 

of Naples, the Prince of Neufchatel still holding his 
post of major-general. In fonr days I shall be in 
Paris, where I shall spend the winter to look after 
my most important affairs. Possibly Yonr Majesty 
will decide to send there some one in the absence of 
your Ambassador, whose presence is of such service 
to the army. The different bulletins which the Duke 
of Bassano cannot have failed to send Count Otto 
will have informed Your Majesty of everything that 
has happened since our departure from Moscow. It 
is important, in the present circumstances, that Your 
Majesty should mobilize his corps in Galicia and Tran- 
sylvania, thus raising his forces to sixty thousand men. 
I have perfect confidence in Your Majesty's feelings. 
The alliance we have contracted forms a permanent 
system to assure the triumph of the common cause, 
and to bring us speedily to a suitable peace. You 
may be sure that I for my part shall always be found 
ready to do everything in my power to please you and 
to convince you of the importance I attach to our 
existing relations, as well as to give proofs of the 
perfect esteem and high consideration with which 
I am Your Majesty's affectionate brother and son-in- 
law, Napoleon." 

The Emperor left Dresden as stealthily as he entered 
it ; and always buried in thick furs, concealed under a 
false name, he continued his swift journey in a sleigh 
with the same companions. This strange journey 
was not unpleasant to him. Curious and romantic 
experiences suited his adventurous nature, which was 



76 MABIE LOUISE. 



greedy of emotions. Then, too, it was a real conso- 
lation no longer to have before his eyes the lamentable 
spectacle of his army, whose terrible sufferings would 
have awakened, if not remorse, at least pity, in the 
coldest heart. Possibly Napoleon fleeing in his sleigh 
over the snowy plains was not so unhappy as one might 
at first suppose. His reverses, though as vast, as 
portentous as his triumphs, had not at all discouraged 
him. What he had seen on the bridge of the Beresina, 
as on that of Arcole, was his unexpected good fortune, 
— what he always called his star. He comforted 
himself with the thought that any one else in such 
circumstances would have perished, and he prepared 
himself for new adventures. The thoughts that flashed 
through his mind as he hurried along through Ger- 
many, exposed to any fanatic who might recognize 
and assassinate him, were not those of moderation, 
prudence, or repentance, but those of pride, victory, 
and dominion. He was like a bold rider who, on 
being once thrown, thinks only of vaulting into his 
saddle, and of whipping, spurring, and mastering his 
wayward steed. His steed was fortune. What did 
he think of what the Abbe Perreyve called "that 
army invisible to the bodily eye, but too visible to 
the mind's eye, which begins its bloody march, that 
grand army of the dead, the slain, the abandoned, 
the forgotten, the army of those atrocious sufferings 
and those prolonged infirmities, which proceeds in 
mournful procession behind what we call glory " ? 
Away with phantoms and odious memories ! That is 



THE EMPEROB'S BET URN. 77 

past ; now for revenge I The loss of the highest stake 
never broke the spirit of an untiring gambler. Like 
Don Juan before his guest of stone, he hardened 
himself against Fate. Fate summoned him to repen- 
tance ; he did not repent. 

Feverishly he seized again the dice, again to shake 
them once more in the box, proud and confident before 
the final throw. He made no recriminations, uttered 
no laments. He had to reign again, remount his 
horse, hold reviews, summon a huge army of con- 
scripts to arms, and once more to make Europe trem- 
ble. When Francis I., returning from captivity in 
Madrid, crossed the Bidassoa, and found himself free 
again on the soil of his kingdom, he exclaimed : 
" Here I am, king once more ! I am king ! I am king 
again ! " When Napoleon had crossed the Rhine, 
he was able to say, " I am always Emperor ! " 

Yes, he was always Emperor ; yet what gloom his 
advent in the capital was to call forth! This was 
the second time he had abandoned his army ; but 
what a difference between the return from Egypt 
and the return from Russia ! From Egypt he had 
returned alone, but victorious, and his soldiers were 
at Cairo ; from Russia he returned alone, but his 
army was annihilated and no longer at Moscow. 
Any one else so returning would have feared the 
criticisms or the blame of the populace ; he was re- 
turning to Paris as proud as if he had just signed a 
glorious peace, and the Grand Army were following 
his triumphal chariot. The nearer he drew to the 



78 MABIE LOUISE. 



frontier, the more his confidence and satisfaction 
increased. The thought of seeing once more his 
wife, his son, his Palace of the Tuileries, his Imperial 
throne, filled him with rapture. After being washed 
overboard by a terrible tempest, he was about to pace 
the deck once more and to take the helm again. 

All his prestige was needed to diminish the dis- 
astrous impression which was produced by the bad 
news that had just arrived. He was not to reach 
Paris until the morning of December 18, and no one 
expected him, when, on the morning of the 17th, 
there was published in the Moniteur the 29th bul- 
letin, which announced many of the catastrophes. It 
came like a thunderbolt. For nearly three weeks no 
word had been received from the army. The 28th 
bulletin, the last that had been received, had been 
published in the official sheet, November 29, and 
as we have seen, it was full of exaggerated op- 
timism. Since then nothing had been heard. Judge, 
then, of the universal stupefaction when the 29th 
bulletin burst upon them like a funeral knell I He 
owned to the loss of more than thirty thousand 
horses in a few days, the melancholy condition of 
the dismounted cavalry, of the artillery, and of the 
train. He said : " Men whom nature had not made 
sturdy enough to rise superior to all the chances of 
fate and fortune, seemed overwhelmed ; they lost 
their gaiety and good-humor, and thought of nothing 
but woe and disaster ; those whom it made of sterner 
stuff preserved their cheerfulness and habitual com- 



THE miPEROR'S HETUBN. 79 

posure, seeing new glory to be won in almost insur- 
mountable difficulties." The bulletin confessed tliat 
the Cossacks, " that contemptible cavalry which simply 
makes a noise, and is incapable of breaking through 
a com^Dany of light infantry, was made by circum- 
stances most formidable." While omitting much, he 
announced the crossing of the Beresina, and closed 
thus : " That the army needs to reform its discipline, 
to form anew, to get new horses for the cavalry, the 
artillery, and its baggage train, is evident from what 
has been said. Its first need is rest. In all its move- 
ments the Emperor has continually marched amid 
his guard ; the cavalry being commanded by the 
Marshal, the Duke of Istria, the infantry by the 
Duke of Dantzic. Our cavalry was so short of 
horses that all the officers who had a single horse 
had to be collected, in order to make four companies 
of one hundred and fifty men each. Generals served 
as captains ; colonels as uncommissioned officers. This 
sacred squadron, commanded by General Grouchy, 
and under the orders of the King of Naples, never lost 
sight of the Emperor in all his movements. His 
Majesty's health was never better." 

In this famous bulletin there certainly prevailed a 
tone of frankness which was not without grandeur, 
and it lent the figure of the Emperor, in better health 
than ever amid so many trials, an epic and majestic 
air ; yet Napoleon's adversaries, especially the Royal- 
ists, reproached him with it most bitterly. Chateau- 
briand thus speaks of it in his M&moires cCoutre 



80 MABIE LOUISE. 



tomhe : " Bonaparte was always guarded by a sacred 
battalion which never lost sight of him in all his 
movements, in compensation for the three hundred 
thousand men slain; but why had not nature tem- 
pered them finely enough ? Then they would have 
preserved their usual appearance. Did this vile meat 
for cannon deserve to have its movements watched 
as preciously as those of His Majesty ? This bulletin, 
like many others, ends thus : ' His Majesty's health 
was never better.' Families, dry your tears ! Napo- 
leon is well ! After this report there appeared in the 
papers this official remark : ' This is an historic utter- 
ance of the highest rank. Xenophon and Caesar thus 
wrote, one his Retreat of the Ten Thousand, the 
other his Commentaries.' What madness of pedantic 
allusion ! We had sunk to the contemptuous scorn 
of a flattery which exhumed memories of Xenophon 
and Csesar in order to insult the eternal grief of 
France." 

M. de Montesquiou reached Paris the night of 
December 17. He had left the Emperor on the 2d, 
the date of the despatches he was carrying to the 
Empress, and since then had heard nothing from him. 
Hence he could give Marie Louise only very meagre 
information, and no one knew where Napoleon was, 
or when he would return to the capital. This abso- 
lute uncertainty, added to the gloom produced by 
the 29th bulletin, arroused widespread uneasiness. 
Meanwhile the Emperor continued his journey with- 
out an obstacle. On his way through Weimar he 



THE EMPEBOB'S BETUBN. 81 



borrowed the carriage of liis Minister, M. de Saint- 
Aignan, and pushed on through Hanau and Maj^ence 
without being recognized. At a short distance from 
Paris, his carriage having met with a slight accident, 
he took a post-chaise, which brought him swiftly 
the rest of the way. 

December 18, at half-past eleven at night, Marie 
Louise, sad and ailing, had just gone to bed in the 
Tuileries. The lady-in-waiting, who was to sleep in 
the next room, was making ready to lock all the 
doors, when suddenly she heard the footsteps of two 
men. Who could it be at that hour ? The drawing- 
room door opened, and two men, wrapped in thick 
furs, made the lady utter a cry of surprise : one was 
the First Equerry, Caulaincourt, and the other the 
Emperor himself. At first they had been refused 
admission to the palace, and both had found some 
difficulty in getting the porter to recognize them. 
Marie Louise, who was suddenly awakened, sprang 
out of bed, and when she saw Napoleon, embraced 
him with delight. 



VI. 

ADULATION. 

ANY one but Napoleon would have been dis- 
turbed at the thought of meeting his Ministers 
for the first time after a war which he had been the 
only one to desire, and which had ended so lament- 
ably. But he, so far from feeling the slightest embar- 
rassment, determined to assume their position and 
to appear as an accuser. Malet's conspiracy gave 
him exactly the pretext that he desired. The feel- 
ing that his presence inspired was mainly fear. His 
attitude, he decided, should be what it would have 
been if the Russian campaign had been one long 
triumph. Instead of rendering an account, he meant 
to demand one. 

On his arrival at the Tuileries, December 18, at half- 
past eleven in the evening, the Emperor summoned 
the Princes holding high positions, the Ministers, and 
the high officers of the Crown for the next morning. 
First he received the Archchancellor Cambacer^s, 
then the Ministers in succession, according to the 
length of the tenure of their offices, so that the Chief 
Justice and all the Ministers, with the sole exception 

82 



ADULATION. 83 



of the Minister of Commerce, came before Savary, 
Duke of Rovigo, the Minister of Police. 

" Of all who were there," says the Duke of Rovigo 
in his Memoirs, " there was not one who would have 
wished to stand in my shoes. They all seemed 
unwilling to speak to me, lest they should pain me. 
The Emperor detained every Minister, except the 
Minister of War, only a short time, so that I was 
ushered into him very soon. When I passed through 
the crowd which had gathered about the door of the 
drawing-room where the Emperor was, they made 
way for me as if they were letting a funeral proces- 
sion pass on its way to bid farewell to the court. 
What especially helped to confirm this opinion was 
the return to Paris of the Duke of Otranto, whom 
the Emperor had recalled from Aix in Provence, 
where he was living : every one looked upon him as 
my successor. Some who had been my friends in 
the days of my first success took pains to let me 
know everything that was said while I was with the 
Emperor." 

The Duke of Rovigo remained nearly two hours 
with his sovereign. " I can imagine," said Napoleon, 
'^ that you might have been arrested by fifty men, 
but it is very much to be regretted that you should 
not have been able to defend yourself. As for me, 
I am at the mercy of the first officer who is on guard 
at my door." The Minister entered into long expla- 
nations, which the Emperor received very kindly, and 
he soon saw with surprise and pleasure that he still 



84 MABIE LOUISE. 



retained his master's confidence. " When I left the 
Emperor," he says, " it was interesting to see the 
curiosity of the courtiers, who tried to read in my 
face whether they should do well to approach me. 
However, they regarded the length of our conversa- 
tion as a favorable sign, and it was that evening (for 
it was four or five o'clock in the afternoon) that 
those ridiculous rumors which had been current about 
me for a month, came to an end. Afterwards I had 
many excellent opportunities to make their authors 
repent their rashness, but I did nothing about it. 
My friends returned when they saw I was in favor ; 
I received them all without bearing malice." 

Although Napoleon reached the Tuileries in the 
evening of December 18, the Moniteur of the 19th 
made no mention of his return. It contained, how- 
ever, the following paragraph: "December 5 the 
Emperor called together, at headquarters at Smor- 
goni, the King of Naples, the Viceroy, the Prince of 
Neuf chatel, and the Marshals, the Dukes of Elchingen, 
of Dantzic, of Treviso, the Prince of Eckmiihl, the 
Duke of Istria, and told them he had appointed the 
King of Naples his lieutenant-general, to command* 
the army during the winter. His Majesty, in pass- 
ing through Wilna, accorded an interview of several 
hours to the Duke of Bassano. His Majesty trav- 
elled incognito in a single sleigh, under the name of 
the Duke of Vicenza. He visited the fortification 
of Praga, passed through Warsaw, and spent several 
hours there without being recognized. Two hours 



ADULATION. 85 



before his departure he sent for Count Potocki and 
the Minister of Finance of the Grand Duchy, with 
whom he conversed for a long time. His Majesty 
reached Dresden the 14th, one hour after midnight, 
and stayed with Count Serra, his Minister. He had 
a long conversation with the King of Saxony, and 
left immediately, by Leipsic and Mayence." 

Napoleon's return was thus announced in the Mon- 
iteur of December 20 : " Paris, December 19. His 
Majesty the Emperor arrived in Paris yesterday 
evening at half-past eleven o'clock. He has received 
the Princes holding high positions, the Minister, and 
high officers. The Duke of Cadore has been sworn 
in as Minister and Secretary of State ad interim in 
the place of Count Daru, who remains until further 
orders with the army, as Commissary General. His 
Majesty has commissioned the Bishop of Nantes, one 
of his almoners, with the administration of his chapel, 
in the absence of the Grand Almoner." 

Etiquette moved on with perfect regularity ; Napo- 
leon had never seemed more calm and more confident. 
At the Palace of the Tuileries one would have 
thought that the Russian campaign was nothing but 
a bad dream, a nightmare that the day had dispelled, 
but in the city the distress and uneasiness were very 
great. The Duke of Rovigo says : " The Emperor's 
arrival in Paris completed the change of public opin- 
ion. When once black thoughts began, imagination 
knew no bounds, and the army was regarded as a 
horde of exhausted and half-frozen men, rather than 



86 MARIE LOUISE. 



as a band of cohorts, who for so many years had been 
the admiration of their contemporaries and had en- 
riched history with so many glorious feats." 

The time had come for Napoleon to display all his 
audacity and to seat himself, in proud majesty, upon 
his throne like the Jupiter of the Imperial Olympus. 
Sunday, December 20, at noon, he assembled in his 
palace the great bodies of the State, and it was on 
his throne that he received them, surrounded by 
Princes, Cardinals, Ministers, the High Officers of the 
Crown, and the Grand Eagles of the Legion of Honor. 
The Senate advanced first, introduced by the Grand 
Master of Ceremonies, and presented by His Most 
Serene Highness, the Prince Vice-Grand Elector 
Talleyrand, former Bishop of Autun, and afterwards 
Minister of Louis XVIII. 

. Advance, Senators, who in less than sixteen months 
will proclaim your master's fall, who in speaking of 
him will pass all bounds in your invectives and anath- 
emas, you who will be for him perfect examples of 
ingratitude and insolence ! Burn all the incense you 
have left 1 Bind together the flowers of your servile 
rhetoric ! You still draw your pay. The gilded 
embroideries of your uniforms are still bright. So 
long as the lilies have not taken the place of the 
bees, be more ardent Luperialists than the Emperor ; 
you will soon be more ardent Royalists than the 
King 1 You will return to this same palace, you will 
bow before the same throne. Another monarch will 
be seated there, another fiag will be flying above the 



ADULATION. 87 



dome. But what does that matter? You will not 
have altered your character, and you will succeed 
under the white flag through the same qualities as 
under the tricolor. The birth of the Duke of Bor- 
deaux will be for you the same thing as the birth of 
the King of Rome. The same language will seem to 
celebrate the two Princes ; the same cradle will do 
for both, like the same throne. 

The President of the Senate began his speech after 
congratulating the Emperor on his "happy arrival 
amid his people " ; he went on : " Sire, while Your 
Majesty was eight hundred leagues from his capital, 
at the head of his victorious army, men, escaping from 
the prisons where your Imperial clemency had saved 
them from death, which they merited for their past 
crimes, tried to disturb the order of this great city. 
They have suffered the penalty of their misdeeds. 
Happy is France, Sire, in being secured by its 
monarchic constitution from civil discords, from the 
sanguinary hatreds begotten of partisanship, and from 
the horrid disorders that follow in the train of revo- 
lutions ! " 

There was no need for the Senators to wax indig- 
nant with General Malet's forged decree of the Senate ; 
,the one they voted April 2, 1814, certainly expressed 
no greater fidelity to the Emperor. They them- 
selves it was who were to accuse Napoleon of ha^dng 
'' broken the compact which united him to the French 
people, by levying taxes otherwise tlian through the 
law, by unnecessarily adjourning the Legislative 



88 MARIE LOUISE. 



Body, by illegally issuing several decrees of condem- 
nation to death, by annihilating the responsibility of 
the Ministers, the independence of the bench, and 
the liberty of the press." They were to accuse him 
with completing the misfortunes of their country "by 
the abuse of all the means entrusted to him, both 
men and money, for war, and his refusal to treat 
on conditions which the national interest required 
him to accept." They themselves, the accomplices 
of his faults, were to proclaim his fall. Malet only 
forestalled their feelings, their language ; only they 
did not wait to be told that the Emperor was dead. 
Malet's conspiracy was not merely a prophecy ; it was 
the exact programme of the different revolutions 
still hidden in the future. October 23, 1812, no one 
gave a thought to the King of Rome ; who, July 29, 
18.30, was to think of the Duke of Bordeaux ? of the 
Count of Paris, February 24, 1848? September 4, 
1870, of the Prince Imperial ? 

The President of the Senate continued his address. 
" The Senate," he said, " is the Emperor's first Coun- 
cil ; its authority exists only when the Monarch calls 
for it, and sets it in motion ; it is established for the 
preservation of this monarchy and the inheritance of 
your throne in our fourth dynasty. France and pos- 
terity will find it always faithful to this sacred duty ; 
and all its members Avill ever be ready to die in 
defence of this .palladium of the national security and 
prosperity." Chateaubriand, commenting on this 
passage, says : " The Senate, in presuming to con- 



ADULATION. 89 



gratulate Napoleon on the public welfare, is never- 
theless appalled at its own courage : it fears even 
to exist, and takes care to say that the authority of 
the Senate exists only when the sovereign calls for 
it and sets it m motion. There was so or-reat dang-er 
that the Senate would be independent ! " 
^ Then followed lyrical outbursts of enthusiasm. 
" Sire, Your Majesty has hoisted the French eagles 
on the towers of Moscow. The enemy was able to 
oppose your success and to thwart your plans only 
by having recourse to the ghastly measures of des- 
potism, by turning its boundaries into deserts, and 
by giving to the flames his capital, the centre of his 
wealth, and the product of many centuries. They 
little know, Sire, Your Majesty's heart when they 
thus revive the barbarous tactics of their savage 
ancestors. You would gladly have renounced tro- 
phies which were to cost so much human blood and 
suffering. ... May Your Imperial and Royal Maj- 
esty deign to accept this tribute of the gratitude, 
love, and unalterable fidelity of the Senate and of 
the French people ! . . . The affection which the 
whole nation bears for the King of Rome proves, 
Sire, both the attachment of the French for Your 
Majesty's family, and that inward conviction which 
reassures every citizen, and shows him in tliis august 
child the security of his own, the safeguard of Ms 
fortunes, and an invincible obstacle to all civil agita- 
tions and political upheavals, the greatest misfortunes 
that can distress a people." 



90 MABIE LOUISE. 



The Emperor replied to the Senators : " What you 
say is very agreeable to me. . . . Our fathers had 
adopted this rallying cry: 'The King is dead; long 
live the King ! ' These few words express the main 
advantages of a monarchy. I think that I have care- 
fully studied the feelings that my people have shown 
in different ages : I have reflected on what has been 
done at different epochs of our history , I shall still 
ponder them. The war I am waging against Russia 
is a political war. I have carried it on without 
animosity : I should gladly have spared that country 
the evils it has inflicted upon itself. I might have 
armed the greater part of the population against the 
others, by proclaiming the emancipation of the serfs : 
many villages urged this upon me ; but when I saw 
the degraded condition of this large class of the 
Russian people, I refused to take this step which 
would have consigned many families to death and 
to the most awful torments. My army has suffered 
losses, but these are due to the premature severity 
of the winter. I accept the expression of your feel- 
ings." 

One would have said, to hear the Emperor, that 
the retreat from Russia was merely an unimportant 
episode in the vast romance of his career. To the 
terrible catastrophes which had practically wiped out 
his army, he referred only with these few words, 
"My army has suffered losses." Of his own blun- 
ders, his own imprudence, his refusal of the advice 
of all who knew the geography, the character, the 



ADULATION. 91 



climate of Russia, he said not a word. The Council 
of State, with even more fulsome flattery than the 
Senate, went into raptures over "the prodigious 
development of an august character which was 
greater than ever." What was his reply ? He talked 
— strange as it may seem — about ideology. "It is 
to ideology, the science of ideas, to that obscure 
metaphysical speculation, that study of the obscure 
first causes, which busies itself with establishing the 
foundations of legislation rather than with adopting 
laws in accordance with our knowledge of the human 
heart and with the lessons of history, that we must 
attribute the misfortunes that have befallen France. 
These errors necessarily introduced the reign of the 
men of blood. In fact, who announced the principle 
of insurrection as a duty ? Who flattered the people 
by announcing a sovereignty which it was incapable 
of exercising? Who destroyed the sanctity and the 
respect of laws by making them dependent, not on 
the sacred principles of justice, on the nature of 
things, and on civil justice, but merely on the will 
of an assembly composed of men ignorant of civil, 
criminal, administrative, political, and military laws ? 
When one is called upon to regenerate a state, it 
is the opposite principles that should be followed." 
Why did not Napoleon impeach, instead of innocent 
ideology, the guilty winter, the author of most of the 
disasters of the Russian war, and charge it with high 
treason ? 

The time was set ; the official flattery was to grow 



92 MARIE LOUISE. 



in obsequiousness, and Napoleon was never to tire of 
the incense burned before him. Instead of thinking 
of mournful subjects, some great solemnity, some 
magnificent splendor, was called for, such as the cor- 
onation of the Empress and of the King of Rome. 
That, said the courtiers, will be a fine opportunity for 
France to express its devotion and loyalty to the 
Imperial dynasty : the Emperor had but to go to the 
capital; there he would hear nothing but applause. 
December 2T, in the Throne Room of the Tuileries, 
he received a deputation of the electoral college of 
the Department of the Tiber, and the President spoke 
in these high-flown terms : " The Romans will not 
belie the name of their ancestors ; and while some 
shall fight beneath victorious banners, others shall 
cultivate the arts in order to make eternal, by majestic 
monuments, your glorious exploits, and to transmit 
their memory to the remotest posterity. Sire, to 
crown the happiness of the city of Rome, you have 
only to honor it with your presence and to permit it 
to behold you seated on a throne reared in the Palace 
of the Csesars. In that shrine you will hear unend- 
ing applause ; there you will see the famous monu- 
ments, rescued from the ravages of time, which your 
munificence has restored to the fine arts. The 
Romans will bind your brow with undying laurel, 
and your entrance into the capital will be the most 
solemn, the best applauded, and the most deserved of 
your triumphs. It will efface the vaunted ovations 
of ancient warriors, of the most illustrious emperors. 



ADULATION. 93 



Deign, Sire, to accept and to appreciate the unani- 
mous wishes of the city of Rome and of its depart- 
ment which we have been commissioned to lay on 
the steps of your throne." 

Paris and the Eternal City tried to outdo each 
other in adulation. After the Roman deleo-ate, the 
Prefect of the Seine made his address : " What joy. 
Sire, the presence of your sacred person imparts to 
every heart ! What hope and security it inspires ! 
Your glances everywhere give life ; and then what 
glory during your absence ! Our wishes, our homage, 
our admiration, followed Your Majesty's footsteps as 
he flew from victory to victory, planting his eagles on 
the turrets of Moscow, and in those even more glorious 
moments when he manifested how even against the 
fury of the elements could prevail that constancy, 
that firmness of soul, which have won for him the 
proudest triumph that it could be granted to mortals 
to attain ! " 

The evening of December 27, 1812, the day ^viien 
he had listened to these two addresses in the Throne 
Room, the Emperor went to the opera Avith the Em- 
press and saw a performance of Jerusalem Delivered. 
The audience was very large, and, according to the 
Moniteur^ the two sovereigns were greeted with most 
enthusiastic applause. 

Constant, his valet de chambre, says in his Memoirs : 
" I took my old place in the Emperor's service, and 
found him exactly as he was before he left for the 
campaign ; his face was precisely as serene , one 



94 MAEIE LOUISE. 



would have said that the past was of no importance 
in his eyes, and that living already in the future he 
saw victory again perched upon his banners, and his 
enemies humiliated and defeated ... A few days 
after I arrived in Paris, Their Majesties went to the 
opera, where the Jerusalem Delivered was given. I 
was an eye-witness of the way the Emperor and 
Empress were received. I never saw greater enthu- 
siasm, and I must say that it seemed to me a very 
sudden transition from the recent crossing of the 
Beresina to such a magical performance." 

The illusion was complete. Just as in the last 
days of royalty, a few months before the murder of 
Louis XVI., the King and Queen were received with 
an outburst of enthusiasm in the brilliant Opera 
House, so, after the Russian campaign, a few months 
before the invasion, before the deposition. Napoleon 
and Marie Louise received in public, at the theatre, 
a welcome as warm as those of the most brilliant 
evenings of 1810 and 1811. There was the same 
brilliant spectacle, the same glory ; but, alas ! the 
power and splendor of the Empire were about to 
vanish like a scene of the opera itself. Other per- 
sons were soon to come upon the stage. Everything 
was changed in a moment, as if at the machinist's 
whistle. 

Nevertheless Napoleon was able to deceive himself. 
He had found all again, — his wife, his son, the throne, 
his palace, the courtiers. But the artificial world in 
which he lived, surrounded with flattery as in the 



ADULATION. % 



most brilliant periods of his career, was not the real, 
suffering, weeping France. And outside of France 
there was Europe, which was impatiently gnawing 
its bit, awaiting the terrible hour of a general upris- 
ing. Every wise observer was sure that terrible 
convulsions were approaching. To prevent them 
there was demanded infinite wisdom, and wisdom 
was just what this exceptional man most lacked ; for 
his superabundant genius did not possess the good 
sense which was required as a balance. Napoleon 
needed counsellors : he listened only to flatterers. 



VIL 

THE END OF 1812. 

WHILE Napoleon had found once more his cour- 
tiers at tlie Tuileries, and had been greeted 
by them as if he were triumphant, what had become 
of the Grand Army? The day after his departure 
the weather had become even worse ; snowflakes 
filled the air; birds fell to the ground frozen stiff: 
it seemed as if nature, ]3aralyzed and motionless, had 
ceas-ed to live. "Then," says General de S^gur, 
" no one spoke, no one murmured ; the absolute 
silence of despair prevailed, broken only by sounds 
of weeping. Unhappy shades seemed alone to glide 
about in this realm of death. The dull monotony 
of our footfalls, the creaking of the snow, and the 
faint moans of the dying, alone disturbed this vast 
and lamentable silence. There was no anger, no 
cursing, nothing which supposes that any warmth 
was left ; there scarcely survived sufficient strength 
to pray : most fell without complaining, whether from 
weakness and resignation, or because complaints imply 
the hope of relief or sympathy." And the brave 
general who wrote this account, which is as epical 



THE END OF 1813. 97 



as the song of Roland, exclaims in patriotic anguish : 
" This was the army that had sallied forth from the 
most civilized nation in Europe, the army once so 
brilliant and victorious over the enemy until its last 
moment, and whose name still ruled over many con- 
quered capitals. Its bravest warriors, who had just 
crossed the field of many of its victories, had lost 
their noble bearing. The men, clad only in rags, 
with feet bare and bleeding, dragged themselves 
along on branches of pine, and all the strength and 
perseverance they had shown in conquering, they 
now employed in flight." 

Their confusion was complete ; the regiments had 
lost their formation; the men retained neither the 
arms nor the uniforms of soldiers ; they were unable 
to face any other enemy than hunger and cold ; no 
one thought of anything but his own safety : bands 
of eight or ten combined to plunder together. These 
little bands being themselves broken up by their 
sufferings, a crowd of starving men would rush upon 
a dying horse to eat it. Such continual scenes of 
horror and desolation met the survivors of the retreat 
at every step. When, December 13, they reached 
the Niemen, which they had crossed six months be- 
fore under a bright sky, numbering four hundred thou- 
sand men, with sixty thousand cavalry, and twelve 
hundred cannon, in all the pride of power and glory, 
the comparison of that brilliant scene with their 
present misery made even these veterans weep. In- 
stead of three French bridges, brought five hundred 



98 MARIE LOUISE. 



leasfues and thrown across the river with the boldest 
promptness, there was now but one bridge — a Rus- 
sian one. This was used by the remains of the Grand 
Army. Musket in hand, Marshal Ney, at the head 
of a hundred brave men, defended it to the last 
moment, and was the last to leave the fatal land. 
In spite of their terrible sufferings. Napoleon's sol- 
diers still had so great a reputation that the enemy, 
as if astonished at their success, which was due to 
the winter, advanced no further than to the banks 
of the Niemen. 

There were some men whose prodigious courage 
was not shaken for a moment by their fearful suffer- 
ings. Marshal Davout wrote, December 12, to his 
wife : " I take advantage, my dear Aim^e, of the 
departure of a courier, to reassure you regarding 
your Louis's health, which is excellent in spite of the 
inclemency of the season. You will notice that 
my hand trembles as I write; I swear to you that 
the cold is the only reason, and that I feel it all 
the more because I am writing in the open air, so as 
not to lose the courier." He wrote again, December 
17 : " Everywhere the Russians have been beaten, 
and when the army has rested a little, they will meet 
their conqueror again. The conduct of the troops 
is excellent ; not a murmur is to be heard. It seems 
as if the humblest soldier felt that no force, no 
genius, could overcome the harm the weather has 
inflicted." And December 24 : " We must soon hear 
of the Emperor's safe arrival in Paris. This news 



THE END OF 1812. 99 



will be agreeable to every Frenchman, and especially 
to his soldiers ; with him in France, the harm that 
the unexpected and unprecedented cold has done, 
will be soon repaired." Yet there was a limit to 
human strength; the retreat could not have lasted 
many days more. Even those whose spirit was not 
broken for a moment, were physically exhausted ; 
and Marshal Davout himself, prodigy of heroism as 
he was, wrote to his wife from Thorn, December 23 : 
" It was high time, my dear wife, for me to arrive. 
I hope a few days' rest will set me on my legs again, 
especially as my weakness is due to nothing but 
fatigue. I never could have believed that I was so 
strong : I have certainly come four-fifths of the way 
from Moscow on foot." 

Towards the end of December, the letters from the 
officers and men of the Grand Army began to arrive 
in France after a long interruption. There is this 
justice to be rendered to the Imperial government, 
that it did not intercept one of them, and that the sur- 
vivors of the retreat were free to describe with perfect 
frankness the disasters they had just experienced. 
I ask for no other proof of this than this letter from 
my father, who died a general, and, during the Rus- 
sian campaign, was serving as captain in Marshal 
Davout's corps : — 

"Konigsberg, December 21, 1812. My Dear 
Aunt: I am willino^ to bet that since I learned to 
write, not one of my letters has ever given you so 
much pleasure as you will get from this one. For a 



100 MARIE LOUISE. 



long time you must have been in most painful uncer- 
tainty about me, and I need not tell you that it has 
been impossible to send you a line from a country 
where there were no mails, houses, or inhabitants. 
Doubtless you know that I have come from a vast 
desert which contains nothing but snow, ashes, and 
corpses. From the Niemen to Moscow, every village 
was burned without a single exception. We had to 
cross this region again to get from Moscow here. 
When we began the war, we had a hundred regiments 
of cavalry. All the horses are dead and have been 
devoured by the remains of a famished army. I 
should have to write a hundred pages to tell you all 
we have suffered. Since the world began there has 
never been such a war. We have had to fight against 
cannon, fire, famine, and water. Among the few 
survivors it Would be hard to find one whose nose, 
feet, or ears have not been frozen ; but, thanks to my 
good luck, I got here ivJiole^ and in excellent health, 
except a heavy cold from which every one is suffer- 
ing : this is not strange, considering that for seven 
months we have had to sleep in the open air, in good 
and bad weather, in a country where in November 
the thermometer fell to 24° F. 

" I encountered unheard-of dangers at the battle of 
Moskowa, September 7 : for ten hours I was in con- 
tinual peril. All my friends were shot down by my 
side. November 28, at the crossing of the Beresina, 
I was also terribly exposed; my only way of escape 
was to leap with my horse into the river ; the cakes 



THE END OF 1812. 101 



of ice carried him away, and I saved myself by swim- 
ming, all dressed and armed as I was. The bridge 
was blocked and the river was full of bodies. 

" December 13, at midnight, I was taken prisoner 
with four officers of my regiment. I am the only one 
of the five who succeeded in escaping. After run- 
ning for an hour through the snow, which was up to 
my knees, across ditches and palisades, and falling 
seven or eight times, I was out of breath, like a stag 
pursued by hounds. Then a dozen Cossacks, who 
had been pui'suing me, caught up to me, and took 
my cloak, cartridge-box, epaulettes, cross, money, 
watch, in short, everything I had on, except my 
trousers. They were so greedy over the spoils, that 
of all those things not one was left whole. I suffered 
from their excessive haste in stripping me, but other- 
wise I have no cause to complain of their treatment. 
When that operation was finished, they carried me 
away with a considerable band of prisoners, and they 
doubtless would have sent me to Siberia, to end my 
days there, if I could have got so far ; but Providence, 
who has always aided me in peril, favored me once 
more. I took advantage of a moment when my 
guards were more occupied with their booty than 
with their prisoners, and by running like a madman, 
managed to get to the Niemen, which was only a 
quarter of a league away. When I got there, since 
it was frozen, I hid in the reeds. I nearly froze 
myself. I was half naked, and I needed all my 
courage, which never left me for a moment. At 



102 MARIE LOUISE. 



daybreak when I was able to see where I was, and 
to look about me, I started through some woods, 
and by dint of scurrying on managed to rejoin the rear- 
guard ; there I found some friends who lent me some 
money and covered me with a ragged cloak with 
which I reached Konigsberg. Of all the horses, 
uniforms, and luggage of all kinds, of which I had 
more than four thousand francs' worth at the begin- 
ning of the campaign, I have nothing left but one 
pocket-handkerchief. So I have had to supply myself 
with headdress, boots, epaulettes, cartridge-box, arms, 
uniform, lin^n, horses, etc., and I have not a penny. 
So you see I am in a more embarrassing position than 
when I received my commission, because then I had 
at least a coat on my back, while now I find myself 
in the condition I was in, November 30, 1788, when 
my mother's monthly nurse carried me to the fire. 

"I am now going to tell you a most interesting 
piece of news. Since October 11, I have had the 
cross, so that now I am an old knight of the Legion 
of Honor; you may judge how gratifying that is. 
The delight it gave me has all passed away ; I have 
suffered so much since then that the charm of 
novelty is gone ; I am indeed terribly melancholy. 
I have lost all my best friends ; their death has been 
so tragic that my whole life will be saddened. I 
have seen too many horrors ever to forget them." 

The families that were in receipt of letters like 
that were sad ; but how much sadder those that could 
receive none ! How many were absent ! for that is 



THE END OF 1812. 103 



what the dead were called in official language. The 
lists were long of the innumerable absences published 
every day in the official announcements of the Moni- 
teur. France, so long accustomed to triumph, was 
overwhelmed by its defeats. The winter had been 
exceptionally severe even in Paris. If there was 
suffering in comfortable, well-warmed apartments, 
with abundance of nutritious food, and thick clothes, 
what must have been the tortures of the unhappy 
soldiers amid blood-stained snowdrifts? Every one 
was moved by immense compassion. 

There was another feeling, which was quite as 
general, — the desire for peace. The Senate had not 
dared to say the word, but it was in every one's 
heart. Every one yearned for peace, except one man, 
and that man was the Emperor. While the suffering 
and exhausted people cared for nothing but rest, he 
was thinking of nothing but conscription, armies, 
plans of campaign, strategic marches, battles, revenge. 
The Emperor of Austria, on the other hand, who was 
still sincere in his paternal interest for the Napo- 
leonic dynasty, was above all things desirous of peace 
and reconciliation ; and if Napoleon had accepted 
his father-in-law's views and had frankly consented 
to a few concessions of territory, which had become 
indispensable, he would certainly have preserved the 
Austrian and possibly the Prussian alliance. 

It would not be fair to say that at this moment 
the Emperor Francis was deceiving his son-in-law. 
Since the beginning of December the Cabinet of 



104 MABIE LOUISE. 



Vienna had made known its programme which could 
be named in one word, — pacification. M. de Floret, 
First Secretary of the Austrian Embassy at Paris, 
was sent to the Duke of Bassano, Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, who was still at Wilna, where Napoleon had 
made him stay during the war. M. de Floret was 
bearer of this despatch from the Count Metter- 
nich : — 

" Vienna, December 9, 1812 . There are moments 
and events which decide the fate of empires as 
that of individuals. At such times, illusions are 
fatal; one must face the truth, however painful it 
may be. The attempt to bring Russia to terms, from 
the centre of its wilds, has failed. I will say nothing 
of what ought to have been done ; we think too highly 
of the first general of our century to presume to criti- 
cise his military operations. . . . The effect produced 
by the first unsuccessful undertaking of Napoleon 
upon all the nations of Europe is none the less incal- 
culable. It is in view of this circumstance that I 
must beg you to ask the Duke of Bassano to pay the 
greatest attention to the calculations and opinions of 
the Minister of the power most capable of judging 
this important question. He addressed him with 
perfect frankness ; we are more directly called upon 
because the proofs of the most loyal and political are 
wholly in our favor. I do not make a hasty state- 
ment when I aver that Austria alone, by the calm 
and imperturbable firmness of her attitude, restrains 
fifty millions of men who are ready to rise. 



THE END OF 1812. 105 



" However difficult a general peace may appear, it is 
doubtless easier — granted that the Emperor of the 
French desires it — than a separate arrangement. 
The only European power that is called on to speak 
first of this eminently desirable peace is Austria. 
We hold this conviction as a strong and central 
power. We should acquire it, if we did not already 
hold it, from the attempts of every sort which are 
made by the powers at war with France, to persuade 
us to abandon our present alliance. The Emperor 
Francis alone can use to France, England, and Rus- 
sia a language, compromising neither the self-respect 
of rival and hostile governments, nor the national 
feelings of the people. 

" The ties of blood which unite the two Imperial 
houses of France and Austria give an especial char- 
acter to every step taken by our august master. 
Undertaken by any other power, such steps would 
fail to appear as disinterested, and as favorable to the 
French sovereign as are those of Austria. The 
Emperor Francis is interested, not merely in the 
maintenance, but also in the well-being of the new 
dynasty reigning in France, — a consideration without 
weight with the other powers. The Emperor of the 
French seems to have foreseen what has happened at 
this moment, when he said to me so often, that his 
marriage had altered the face of things in Europe. 
The time is approaching, it has perhaps come, when 
the Emperor Napoleon may derive real profit from 
this alliance." 



106 MARIE LOUISE. 



Metternich's despatch ends thus: ''Our august 
master, when he heard of the evacuation of Moscow, 
expressed in a few words the basis of his sentiments 
and of his policy. 'The time has come,' he said, 
'when I can prove to the Emperor of the French 
who I am.' I simply give you these words of His 
Imperial Majesty, and authorize you to quote them 
to the Duke of Bassano : they would only be injured 
by any commentary." 

The Emperor of Austria tried to gain additional 
weight to his proposition by a personal letter to his 
son-in-law, which ran as follows : — 

" Vienna, December 20, 1812. My Brother and 
VERY Dear Son-in-law: I was on the point of 
sending the Count of Bubna to Dresden Avhen I 
received the letter which your Imperial Majesty 
kindly sent hither. Consequently I have modified 
this officer's instructions, and he will have the honor 
of handing you this letter. The course of events 
has occupied me painfully for many weeks. I flatter 
myself that Your Majesty will have gathered from 
the communications that I had presented to him 
through my charge d'affaires at Wilna, the convic- 
tion of the continual interest I feel in him. They 
will also show my way of judging the state of 
affairs, and what are my wishes. These have no 
other aim than Your Majesty's well-being — to which 
I am personally attached by the most sacred bond — 
and no other motive than the greatest good of our 
peoples. It is to me a matter of the greatest interest 



THE END OF 1812. 107 

to know thoroughly Your Majesty's phms, which 
have so direct an influence upon the future, that I 
cannot hesitate to beg you to explain them with all 
the frankness of friendship. You can readily under- 
stand how much I am interested in the fate of the 
brave army which I have added to your own, and 
what must be my anxiety for the safety of my most 
exposed provinces. General Bubna has orders to 
rejoin me at the earliest possible moment. I am 
engaged in selecting the man whom I shall com- 
mission to represent me with Your Majesty until the 
return of the Prince of Schwarzenberg. Accept the 
assurances of the sincere attachment, and of the high 
regard with which I am, my brother. Your Imperial 
Majesty's affectionate brother and father-in-law, 

" Francis." 
General Bubna, who reached Paris towards the 
end of December, carried, besides the letter of the 
Emperor of Austria to Napoleon, another letter from 
him to his daughter ; a letter in which he expressed 
his wishes for an early peace. Marie Louise answered, 
sending her father good wishes for the new year, and 
a present of a porcelain breakfast service adorned 
with views of all the Imperial palaces of France. 
" May Heaven grant," she said in her letter, " the 
fulfilment of your wishes, and that we may soon have 
peace ! " A few days later she wrote to her father : 
" May Heaven grant that the Emperor shall not leave 
me ! The thought of his departure terrifies me after 
all the anguish I endured last year. ... I share your 



108 MARIE LOUISE. 



desire to see soon a long peace, for I don't dare to 
think of the moment when my husband shall return 
to the battle-field." 

Marie Louise was very anxious for peace. She 
desired it for herself, for her husband, for her son, 
for her father, for her two countries, France and Aus- 
tria. The Countess of Montesquiou, the governess 
of the King of Rome, added these words to the prayer 
which the Prince Imperial repeated every evening be- 
fore going to sleep : " O God ! fill papa with a desire 
to make peace for the happiness of France and of us 
all ! " One evening when Napoleon was in his son's 
room, he heard the little Prince stammering out this 
prayer, and he began to smile. Alas ! when the 
Emperor tenderly gazed on the boy sleeping in his 
cradle, why did he not think of all the mothers whom 
his headstrong ambition was to deprive of their sons ? 
How could fatherly love, that deep and gentle feeling, 
be reconciled with such disdain of human lives sac- 
rificed for a doubtful glory and for such short-lived 
plans ? 



VIII. 

THE CONCOEDAT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 

AT the beginning of 1813 Napoleon might still 
have saved his Empire and himself; he had 
not broken with his father-in-law, or with the Princes 
of the Confederation of the Rhine, or even with the 
King of Prussia, and he had command of immense 
resources in men and money. His great mistake lay 
in supposing that an unprecedented disaster, like 
that of the Russian campaign, was an unimportant 
episode. He ought to have consented with a good 
grace to tlirow something overboard, in order that 
all should not be lost. Instead of that, the Emperor, 
staking his whole fortune on a single card, took for 
his motto: All or nothing. Resolved to accept no 
diminution of territory or influence, he thought that 
at his New Year's reception of the great bodies of 
the State and of the High Officials, he could be, 
January 1, 1813, what he had been January 1, 1812. 
He hardened himself the more because his enemies 
wished to humble him; and he had been so long 
accustomed to the favors of Fortune that he imagined 
that she had been guilty of only a temporary infidelity. 

109 



110 MARIE LOUISE. 



Nevertheless, Paris was despondent. The year 
1813 began on a Friday: this number 13 and the 
Friday impressed the superstitious. People said 
that since Josephine was no longer with Napoleon 
to give him good luck, fate had condemned him to 
misfortune. A number of officers and soldiers 
returned, some having lost an arm or a leg, others 
with hands or feet frozen. They described the ter- 
rible disasters they had witnessed, and their stories 
dismayed their hearers. The French, who were 
recently so warlike, had became most peaceable. 
As for the Emperor, he tried by every means in his 
power to react against this general depression. He 
had this paragraph inserted in the Moniteur : " Paris, 
January 10. His Majesty the Emperor was yester- 
day at the Theatre Frangais, where the tragedy of 
Hector was given. This modern piece is an especial 
favorite of His Majesty. This morning, Sunday, after 
mass, there was a parade, and His Majesty spent 
three hours on foot, in spite of the mud and the bad 
weather, in inspecting, organizing, and reviewing his 
troops. He saw a great number of newly arrived 
conscripts. The men are excellent, full of enthu- 
siasm, and very eager." 

Napoleon commanded the High Officials and Queen 
Hortense to give the usual festivities. " Every one 
was compelled," says Chateaubriand, "to go to the 
balls with death in his heart, silently weeping for rel- 
atives and friends. ... In the drawing-rooms was 
seen what is met in the streets : namely, unhappy 



THE CON GOBI) AT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. Ill 



creatures seeking distraction by singing their un- 
happiness to divert passers-by." The Emperor would 
have liked cheerfulness even in the retreat from 
Russia. He had said in his 29th bulletin, " Those 
whom nature had made of sterner stuff preserved 
their gaiety and usual manners." Among the ex- 
ceptional men whom nothing could daunt, the 
General de Narbonne was mentioned with great 
admiration ; for every morning, in his bivouac, he 
used to have his hair done and powdered in the 
midst of the snow, while he chatted freely with the 
officers of his staff. When he had returned to Paris, 
his friends congratulated him, and applied to him the 
famous passage in the 29th bulletin ; but he exclaimed 
sadly, " Ah ! the Emperor may say what he pleases ; 
but ' gaiety ' is a rather strong word I " And he turned 
aside to hide the tears which sprang to his eyes. 

Napoleon knew no such attacks of melancholy. 
Never had he displayed more eagerness or greater 
confidence in his good luck. He was never tired of 
saying that his next campaign would open with twice 
as large forces as had fought in the previous campaign. 
While waiting for the hour of battle, he devoted 
himself most warmly to the pleasures of the chase, 
that mimic war. " At the end of 1812, and the 
beginning of 1813," says his valet de chambre Con- 
stant, " I noticed that the Emperor had never hunted 
so frequently. One day, when Marshal Duroc was in 
his room, and he was putting on his green coat with 
gold facings, I heard the Emperor say, 'I must be 



112 MABIE LOUISE. 



active, that the newspapers may speak of it ; for the 
English papers are saying every day that I am ill, 
cannot move, am good for nothing. Have patience ; 
I shall soon show them that I am well in body and 
mind.' " 

January 19, 1813, a hunt had been commanded 
near Melun, at Grosbois, the estate of Berthier, 
Prince of Neufchatel, who was that day to entertain 
the Emperor and Empress. After a breakfast at the 
castle of Grosbois, the hunt was about to begin 
when, to every one's surprise, Napoleon had a post- 
chaise brought, and after entering it, he drove, not 
to Paris, but to Fontainebleau. Constant says that 
the Empress and the ladies in her suite had actually 
nothing with them but their hunting-dresses, and 
that the Emperor was much amused at their suffer- 
ings when they found themselves on the way to 
Fontainebleau without proper dresses. 

The palace towards which Napoleon thus suddenly 
started had contained, since June 19, 1812, an illus- 
trious and venerable guest. This guest, or, more 
exactly, this prisoner, was the Pope Pius VII., the 
most famous of the victims of the Imperial policy. 
The Emperor, fearing that the English might make 
a descent on Savona, where the Holy Father was first 
confined, had ordered him to be carried to Fontaine- 
bleau ; but remembering how the Vicar of Christ had 
been greeted at Grenoble, Avignon, and Nice, on his 
way to Savona, he had given orders that this time 
the journey should be made secretly. Pius VII. was 



THE CONCORDAT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 113 

obliged to take off his white slippers to have them 
stained with ink and the embroidered cross removed. 
The string was cut which held the gold cross that 
the Popes always wear around their necks ; he had 
to put on a simple priest's hat, and thus disguised, to 
leave Savona secretly the night of June 9 ; not until 
a week later did the inhabitants know that he had 
left. He was very ill at the time, and on his painful 
journey was several times at the point of death. 

Still he uttered no complaint, and after passing 
through Chamb^ry and Lyons by night, without any 
one's suspecting his presence, he reached the gate of 
the Palace of Fontainebleau about noonday, June 19, 
1812. The porter, who had received no instructions, 
refused him admission ; but taking pity upon him, 
found him temporary lodging in a little house near 
the palace. That evening the Duke of Cadore 
arrived, and gave orders that rooms should be at 
once made ready for the Pope. These rooms, which 
looked out on the Courtyard of the Fountain, were 
the same that he had occupied in 1804, at the time 
of the coronation. A detachment of foot-grenadiers 
and of the chasseurs of the Imperial Guard were in 
attendance upon him ; and, as if to disguise what was 
really his captivity, the officer who was charged with 
guarding him was dressed as a chamberlain. The 
presence of this austere and venerable man in this 
gilded prison was a touching spectacle. When, sad 
and solitary, he passed through the brilliant gallery 
of the Festivities and those of the Bourbons, his air 



114 MARIE LOUISE. 



of an anchorite made an imposing contrast with the 
pagan memories of which this spot was full. As he 
gazed at the mythological frescos of Primaticcio, the 
Vicar of Christ thought of the emptiness of all 
human glory and splendor, and he said to himself 
that palaces pass away, but the cross remains. He 
cast a glance of utter indifference upon the useless 
luxury with which they pretended to surround him. 
The carriages and horses offered to him might have 
come from the Imperial stables ; he was firmly 
decided never to use them. He refused to officiate 
publicly in the chapel of the palace. He asked for 
and secured the transformation into an oratory of 
the drawing-room nearest his bedroom, and it was 
there that he said mass every morning. He never 
consented to leave his rooms on any pretext, not 
even to take the air in his garden. His sole prome- 
nade was to walk a few steps in the gallery. The 
inhabitants of Fontainebleau never set eyes on him. 
He lived like a monk, devoting his days to fasting 
and prayer, patching his worn-out clothes. The 
palace of Henri XL and Diane de Poitiers, of Henri 
IV. and Gabrielle d'Estrees, had become a monastery. 
For seven months to a day Pius VII. had led the 
life of an anchorite at Fontainebleau, when, January 
19, 1813, at nightfall, just after his frugal meal, 
while he was talking with the cardinals and bishops 
who lived with him, he saw Napoleon suddenly enter 
in hunting-dress ! His surprise and emotion were 
great at seeing face to face the conqueror whose 



THE CONCORDAT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 115 

image, even when at a distance, was ever present in 
his thoughts. 

The emotion of Pius VII. was all the greater, 
because the Emperor, to whom two years before he 
had written many letters with his own hand, had 
refused to answer him, and had treated him in the 
severest, most insulting manner, even going so far as 
to send him a message through the Prefect of Savona, 
that he would have to resign his position as Sovereign 
Pontiff for incapacity. And now, as if nothing had 
happened ; as if they were still in the happy days of 
1804; as if the Palace of Fontainebleau was not a 
prison. Napoleon, with a happy face, a kind expres- 
sion, a smile on his lips, ran up to the holy old man, 
took him in his arms, and overwhelmed him with 
signs of friendship. 

How much had happened since the Pope and the 
Emperor had parted nearly nine years before ! Pius 
VII. no longer found with Napoleon the amiable 
Josephine, to whom he had been so kind, so fatherly ; 
whose marriage he had legitimized before the Church, 
and whose divorce he had not, at any price, consented 
to pronounce. Where was the time when the new 
Charlemagne had inspired the successor of Saint 
Peter with such great hopes ? How often in his cap- 
tivity the Pope, recovered from his illusions, thought 
of Notre Dame of Paris, and of the brilliant ceremony 
of December 2, 1804! How often, too. Napoleon, 
Catholic by his Italian origin, must have felt a secret 
remorse when he thought of the Sovereign Pontiff 



116 MABlI] LOUISIl. 



who had come to crown him ! He still exercised 
over his victim a sort of fascination, an irresistible 
charm ; so the old man became embarrassed and 
troubled at the thought of being alone with this ter- 
rible charmer. He feared to be drawn into conces- 
sions which he should later repent, and which would 
wring his conscience. 

For his part, the Emperor was determined to 
employ all the means of action, intimidation, and 
seduction of which he possessed the secret. The 
conference was put off till the next day, January 20. 
It took place between Napoleon and Pius VII., 
who shut themselves up alone, and lasted not less 
than five days. "It is evident," said the Abb^ de 
Pradt, "that the Emperor wished to put an end to 
the business by a sudden and unexpected step, and 
that he trusted to the effect that his presence, a direct 
discussion, and his personal skill, would produce on 
the Pope. He was then at the height of his fame, 
and no one had any suspicion of the Island of Elba, 
still less of Saint Helena." Napoleon finally subju- 
gated his antagonist and brought him to the point he 
wanted. The Concordat of Fontainebleau contained 
eleven articles, and might be regarded as an implicit 
renunciation by the papacy of the temporal power of 
the Popes. The first article stated that His Holiness 
would fulfil the duties of the pontificate in France, 
and in the kingdom of Italy, in the same way and 
with the same forms as his predecessors. Residence 
in Paris was not imposed upon the Holy Father, but 



THE CON COED AT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 117 



he was obliged to reside in the States, whether French 
or Italian, of Napoleon. Avignon is said to have been 
the city which Pius VII. preferred, but it is not men- 
tioned in the new Concordat. Article II. stipulated 
that the ambassadors, ministers, charges d'affaires of 
the powers to the Holy Father, and the ambassadors, 
ministers, and charges d'affaires whom the Pope might 
send to foreign powers, should enjoy all the immuni- 
ties and privileges of the members of the Diplomatic 
Body. By Article I. the Emperor promised to pardon 
the cardinals, bishops, priests, and laymen who had 
fallen into disgrace on account of recent events. 
Article II. ran thus : " The Holy Father adheres to 
the above arrangements in consideration of the pres- 
ent state of the Church, and in the confidence inspired 
by His Majesty that he will accord his valuable pro- 
tection to the numerous needs of religion in the times 
in which we are living." 

Napoleon no longer insisted that the black cardi- 
nals — those who had refused to be present at his 
marriage with Marie Louise and had been deprived 
by him of the cardinal's robes — should be blamed, 
and he did not compel the Pope to banish forever 
from his presence Cardinals di Pietro and Pacca. 
Napoleon also made various concessions in regard to 
the nomination of bishops. In the evening of Jan- 
uary 25, 1813, when all was finished and there was 
nothing to do but to sign the Concordat, Pius Vll. 
endured a moment of indescribable anguish. The 
cardinals who were living with him at Fontainebleau 



118 MABIE LOUISE. 



were present at this last conference. He looked at 
them earnestly, betraying his mental anguish and his 
stings of conscience ; his look seemed to say : Am I 
right or wrong ? What ought I to do ? A word, a 
sign, from the four cardinals, and all would perhaps 
have had to be done over again. Not one stirred. 
Respecting the venerable Pontiff's painful perplexity, 
and unwilling to influence him in any way, they kept 
a profound silence, lowering their heads. Then the 
Pope took the pen in his trembling hand and signed. 

When the Emperor thus overcame the resistance 
of the Vicar of Christ, did he suspect that he too, in 
this same Palace of Fontainebleau, would soon endure 
distress, anguish, doubts, and scruples no less terrible 
than those of the Holy Father It was at Fontaine- 
bleau that he compelled the Pope to abdicate his 
temporal power, and it was at Fontainebleau that, 
one year later, he was to abdicate the Empire. Pos- 
sibly he then, when he had to trace the letters of the 
fatal word, recalled what the Pope had suffered at his 
hands. Deeds of violence almost always, even here 
below, bring their punishment, and Providence ap- 
pears as the great distributor of justice to peoples and 
rulers. 

As soon as the Concordat had been signed, Marie 
Louise went, at her own suggestion, to congratulate 
the Pope. It was especially in view of Austria and 
of Southern Germany, essentially Catholic countries, 
with which alliance was necessary, that Napoleon had 
set so much store on some arrangement with the 



THE CONCORDAT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 119 

Pope. It is sometimes when the papacy appears fee- 
blest that it is really strongest. The captivity of 
Pius VII. had been worse for the jailer than for the 
prisoner. One was to die at Saint Helena ; the other 
was to return in triumph to Rome. Napoleon had a 
vague instinct of the great importance of the religious 
question, and when he imagined that he had settled 
it by the Concordat of Fontainebleau, he felt a joy 
which was to be shared by his wife and father-in-law. 
Marie Louise, who remembered that the black cardi- 
nals had refused to be present at her wedding, and 
knew that Pius VII. had opposed the divorce, was 
both flattered and touched by the warmth of the 
Holy Father's greeting. As soon as the Concordat 
was signed, she wrote to the Emperor Francis : '' We 
have been at Fontainebleau for six days. The Em- 
peror and the Pope have settled the affairs of Chris- 
tianity in the best way. The Pope seems very 
happy. Since yesterday morning he has been most 
easy and gracious ; he signed the treaty in less than 
a quarter of an hour. I have just seen him ; I found 
him very well. He has a very handsome and inter- 
esting face. This reconciliation will, I am sure, 
please you as much as it does me." 

Napoleon, too, hastened to send in confidence to his 
father-in-law the text of the new Concordat, with a 
letter to which the Emperor Francis replied February 
17, 1813, as follows : — 

" My Brother and very Dear Son-in-law : It is 
with great pleasure that I have received Your Impe- 



120 MAEIE LOUISE. 



rial Majesty's last letter. You know how much 
interest I take in the real welfare of your government. 
The condition of the Church has a great interest for 
France, and a definite arrangement of its affairs has 
no less for my Empire. I am very anxious that Your 
Imperial Majesty should be equally successful in set- 
tling with the Holy Father the temporal question 
with which is closely connected that of the perfect 
independence of the head of the universal Church. 
It is this independence which especially interests the 
Catholic powers ; it is not without points of great 
utility to Your Majesty himself. I shall keep the 
secret you desire concerning the text of the transac- 
tion which you have been kind enough to communi- 
cate to me." 

February 18, 1813, Count Otto, French Ambas- 
sador at Vienna, had already written this despatch 
on the same subject: "Yesterday morning I was 
admitted to a private audience, in which I handed His 
Majesty's letter to the Emperor. He did not open it 
in my presence, but I hastened to tell him that it 
contained a copy of the Concordat concluded by the 
Emperor with the Pope. The Emperor expressed 
the liveliest satisfaction. He told me he had always 
desired this arrangement as one of the essential bases 
of public peace in France and in the rest of Europe. 
' I often spoke on this subject,' he said, ' to your 
master during his stay at Dresden. The influence 
of religious opinions is far too powerful not to become 
with you, as elsewhere, one of the leading principles 



THE CONCORDAT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 121 



of internal policy. I draw from it the happiest augu- 
ries for a general peace.' " 

In appearance everything was settled; in fact, 
nothing was. The Concordat did not contain a 
formal renunciation, on the part of the Holy Father, 
of the possession of the Roman States ; it spoke only 
of the Pope's promise to exercise his pontificate in 
the Emperor's states, and Pius VII. made only an 
implicit abdication. More than this, the very evening 
of the signature Napoleon had dictated to the Bishop 
of Nantes so strange a letter that, according to the 
Count d'Haussonville, it is hard to make out whether 
it was inspired by amiability or whether it contained 
bitter sarcasm. This is the letter : " Your Holiness 
having appeared to fear at the moment of signing the 
articles of the Concordat which put an end to the 
divisions that afflict the Church, that this implied a 
renunciation of the sovereignty of Rome, I take pleas- 
ure in assuring you by this letter, that never having 
felt justified in demanding it, I cannot conceive that 
there has been any renunciation, direct or indirect, 
of the sovereignty of the Roman States, and I have 
intended to treat with you only in your capacity as 
Head of the Church in spiritual matters." Had 
Napoleon forgotten, when he wrote this letter, that 
he had styled his son the King of Rome, and that the 
Eternal City was the capital of a French department, 
the Department of the Tiber ? No ; doubtless he had 
not forgotten it. He knew well that in the eyes of 
Pius VII. the true King of Rome was not the little 



122 MABIE LOUISE. 



Prince Imperial, but himself, the Pope. The restora- 
tion to favor of the black cardinals cost the Emperor 
a bitter pang. He especially feared Cardinal Pacca. 
" He is my enemy," he often said. He signed with 
reluctance the decree setting free the prelate and the 
Cardinal di Pietro. He felt sure that these two 
cardinals would fill with scruples and anxiety the 
troubled conscience of Pius VII. " When the Cardi- 
nal di Pietro arrives," he said to the Pope, half ironi- 
cally, " you will confess to him." 

Napoleon and Marie Louise, before leaving Fon- 
tainebleau, January 27, 1813, took affectionate leave 
of the Holy Father. But no sooner had the Pope 
seen the mighty conqueror depart than he fell into 
deep dejection and bitterly repented the concessions 
he had made. His timidity plunged him into deep 
anguish ; he fancied himself false to his duties and to 
the cause of Heaven. When he looked at the pine- 
trees which Louis XVI. had planted opposite the 
gloomy rooms where Monescalchi was assassinated, 
he suffered moral tortures like those that had wrung 
the heart of the martyred king when the Pope had 
written to him, " If you were disposed to renounce 
even the rights inherent in the royal prerogative, you 
have no right to alienate or to abandon what is due 
to God and to the Church, whose eldest son you 
are." 

When Cardinal Pacca presented himself at Fon- 
tainebleau, he found, he said, " His Holiness in a 
pitiable and alarming state. When he spoke of what 



THE CONCORDAT OF FONTAINEBLEAU. 123 

had happened he was overwhelmed with the deepest 
remorse. This distracting thought robbed him of 
sleep and let him eat only enough to avoid starva- 
tion." In his despair the unhappy man exclaimed, 
" All this will make me die mad, like Clement XIV." 
The only alleviation to his grief was the thought 
that he had yielded only to force ; yet he bitterly 
reproached himself for not preferring martyrdom to 
concessions which he regarded as dishonorable and 
criminal. From that moment, but one idea possessed 
him, — to recant, whatever might be the consequences 
of such temerity. May 24, 1813, he gave to the offi- 
cers in charge of his person a letter, in which he 
declared to Napoleon that he regarded the Concordat 
of January 25 as null and void ; then he read to the 
cardinals who were with him an allocution in which 
he said to them in a transport of mystic joy, " Blessed 
be the Lord, who has not removed his mercy from 
us. He wished to humiliate us by a salutary confu- 
sion. May this humiliation be for the good of our 
soul ! To him for all time be praise, and honor, and 
glory ! " From that day, calm took possession of the 
successor of Saint Peter, and, freed from remorse, he 
recovered his health and moral peace ; his sleep and 
a heart at peace. 



IX. 

THE COUNT OF SAINT MAESAN. 

IT is curious to notice how formidable Napoleon 
continued to be, even after the retreat from Rus- 
sia, and how much he was dreaded. The blood-stained 
snows had wrought no injury to the pedestal on which 
stood that colossal figure. Even Germany, though 
cowed and impatient, did not dare to express her 
hatred openly. It was in secret councils and mys- 
terious meetings that the general insurrection was 
prepared. Judging from the diplomatic conditions. 
Napoleon seemed to enjoy the same power. His 
representatives at Berlin and at Vienna, the Count 
of Saint Marsan and Count Otto, were treated with 
the utmost respect. Austria and Prussia appeared, 
officially at least, desirous of maintaining and even of 
strengthening the French alliance. The two ambas- 
sadors received the most cordial assurances and the 
most lavish promises. We have inspected the corre- 
spondence of these two diplomatists and that of Gen- 
eral the Count of Narbonne, who, in 1813, succeeded 
Count Otto as French Ambassador at Vienna. The 
greater number of the despatches we quote have 

124 



THE COUNT OF SAINT MARS AN. 125 

never been printed. They set before us, one might 
almost say from day to day, the growth of the evil 
by which two countries that, during the war of 1812, 
had been the vassals rather than the allies of France, 
passed from obedience to discussion, from discussion 
to disagreement, and ended with declaring war on 
their ally. These despatches are mainly interesting 
to diplomatists; but others, we hope, will find them 
not unworthy of attention. 

The situation of the Prussian court was especially 
difficult at the end of 1812. Napoleon had done too 
much or too little for it. From the moment he had 
forborne to destroy it, he should have treated it more 
kindly. By imposing French garrisons upon it, and 
weighing it down with burdens of every sort, he had 
produced a feeling of exasperation which for many 
years was latent and was sooner or later to break 
forth. A country like that of Frederick the Great, 
accustomed to glory, could not resign itself to such a 
humiliated condition. 

King Frederick William, guarded by the French 
troops who occupied Berlin and the fortified towns, 
bore more likeness to a hostage than to an independ- 
ent sovereign. The misery of his ruined and humili- 
ated people had grown till it filled castles as well as 
hovels; no one's fortune had been spared; private 
sufferings rivalled those of the state. Napoleon took 
account of all this, and his position with relation to 
Prussia was as false as Prussia's position with relation 
to him. On one hand, he owed the Prussian govern- 



126 MABIE LOUISE. 



ment money for food and supplies, and on the other ' 
he had every reason to believe that the money he 
should pay this government would be spent against 
France. The Count of Saint Marsan, the Emperor's 
Minister at Berlin, was highly thought of then ; but 
circumstances are stronger than men, and in spite of 
all his zeal, intelligence, and loyalty, this skilful and 
honest diplomatist was unable to stem the torrent. 

Still, at the end of 1812, Prussia was still trem- 
bling before Napoleon, and the King had not shown 
by a word, a gesture, or a movement of his face, the 
slightest indication of resistance. Perhaps even at 
this moment he was sincere in his desire of maintain- 
ing an alliance against which the national feeling 
protested, but which was to be broken by the govern- 
ment only after long hesitations and a real terror. 

On passing through Dresden on his way from 
Russia, the Emperor, December 14, 1812, had writ- 
ten to Frederick William, the King of Prussia, that 
it was very important that the Prussian contingent 
should alone constitute an army corps, and should be 
raised to thirty thousand men. "In asking Your 
Majesty to augment his troops," it was said in Napo- 
leon's letter, "I show how much confidence I have 
in the system you have adopted." The letter ended 
with congratulations on the courage and discipline 
displayed by the Prussian troops during the campaign. 
It was handed to the King at Berlin by the Count 
of Saint Marsan, who addressed the following report 
to the Emperor, December 17, 1812: "The King 



THE COUNT OF SAINT MARSAN. 127 



received me with his usual kindness. I handed him 
Your Majesty's letter. I had a long audience, and I 
have the satisfaction of announcing to Your Majesty 
that I found the King in the most compliant mood, 
without a cloud on the loyalty and frankness of his 
character. The King added that he did not fear fac- 
tious spirits, that I ought to have seen that he had 
taken some measures, and that orders had been given 
to keep a rigid oversight and to punish everything 
of the sort that showed itself, no matter how trivial, 
even if a mere jest. In general. Sire, I was able to 
see that the King was gratified by two things : one 
by the satisfaction Your Majesty expressed with the 
conduct of his troops, and the other, the mark of con- 
fidence and consideration you gave in asking him to 
unite his contingent in a single army corps consisting 
of his troops alone, thus treating him like Austria." 

The Count of Saint Marsan did not conceal from 
the Emperor the extreme agitation which was begin- 
ing to show itself in Prussia, and in this report he 
said ; " I ought not to keep it from Your Majesty, 
the foes of this system of union with France are 
working most eagerly to excite every one. The King, 
who is of frank, loyal, and scrupulously upright char- 
acter, is not, I think, open to the attacks of those 
who would like to lead him into another system, 
especially since he is endowed with a certain firmness 
which some may call obstinacy, that is no less useful 
at this moment. The Baron von Hardenberg, who 
is of an upright and loyal character, and who is 



128 MARIE LOUISE. 



especially anxious not to pass for a frivolous politi- 
cian, is too clear-sighted not to see that if Prussia 
changes her system she would begin by being over- 
whelmed by France, and that if she escaped ruin, she 
would become the prey of Russia. On the other 
hand, this Minister thinks that at the moment when 
Your Majesty shall be able to give a firm and solid 
peace to Europe, Prussia, having faithfully followed 
your system, will seem, too, destined to form a con- 
stant ally of France and her northern frontier, and 
that Your Majesty will assign to this country, not the 
military place which it has occupied and which was 
exaggerated, but the rank that it held in the politi- 
cal system for the equilibrium of Europe. I know 
that he goes so far as to think that if Poland is not 
so strongly constituted as to assure its existence, it 
might occur to Your Majesty not to unite Poland 
with Prussia, but to make the King of Prussia the 
King of Poland, in order to strengthen the frontier, 
by combining the interior lines and countries. . . . 
The greater part of the nation have always regarded 
the system of union w^ith France as the safeguard 
of Prussia, but at this moment they are disturbed 
by all the intrigues of the opposite party, which is 
smaller but more active ; and the sufferings, which are 
really excessive, and the burdens that weigh upon 
proprietors, do not act in our favor." 

The first news of the French disasters were not 
believed in Prussia, where it could not be imagined 
that the unrivalled army which had been seen in its 



THE COUNT OF SAINT 3fARSAN. 129 



splendor a few months before was nothing but a 
phantom. But the arrival of the wounded made the 
truth known, and from that time thoughts of revenge 
fired every Prussian heart. Nevertheless, M. de Saint 
Marsan had no suspicions of Frederick William's 
feelings about Napoleon, and he wrote to the Em- 
peror at the end of December : " All sorts of talk 
are still prevailing at Berlin. Part of it is due to the 
French wounded who are passing through. Mal- 
contents are agitating, but it amounts to nothing 
more serious than drawing-room talk, especially on 
the part of a few women. The King and the Minis- 
try are faithfully following a line of conduct such as 
I am able to approve. The King thinks that Your 
Majesty intends to devote the great resources of your 
genius and the strength of your Empire to collect an 
army still more formidable than the first ; that then 
you will negotiate a peace, even a general peace. . . . 
When the King heard that the Duke of Bassano 
meant to pass through Berlin, he expressed to me his 
satisfaction. He gave orders to have a house pre- 
pared for him, and when he was told that I meant to 
have him stay with me, sent me word that he hoped 
that the Duke would at least make use of his horses 
and carriages; that besides his desire to testify his 
esteem and regard for the Duke of Bassano, it was 
well that the public should know what he felt for 
Your Majesty's Minister." 

There was a strange contrast between the language 
of the Prussian court, which was always gracious. 



130 MABIE LOUISE. 



courteous, and respectful towards Napoleon, and the 
deep-seated anger which the country no longer sought 
to conceal ; but M. de Saint Marsan no less persisted 
in building great hopes upon the King and his 
Ministry. December 22, 1812, he wrote a despatch 
to the Duke of Bassano : " Clamor and malice are 
under full headway. The Chancellor continually 
urges the police to keep close watch. It has been 
suggested to him to issue a special order on the sub- 
ject: he thinks this useless, and possibly dangerous 
at this moment. I agree with him. We have agreed 
that every overt act or attempt shall be severely 
punished, and that the greatest publicity should be 
given to the measures adopted by the government 
for the promotion of the common cause, which will 
be of the happiest effect, and produce an excellent 
impression upon the nation. . . . With respect to 
its main policy, without regard to special circum- 
stances, I believe that if Prussia is sure of the con- 
fidence of France, she will always prefer the French 
alliance to any other." 

The illusions of the French diplomatist were 
doomed to have a terrible awakening. December 
30, 1812, a thunderbolt fell. On that day. General 
York, who commanded the twenty thousand Prus- 
sians of the rear guard, and almost the whole of 
General Macdonald's army corps, concluded, at 
Tauroggen, a capitulation by which he and his 
troops entered into the Russian army corps that 
was pursuing him. The Prussian soldiers shouted 



THE COUNT OF SAINT 3fARSAN. 131 

with joy when they heard the order of the day that 
announced this defection, which was the first out- 
break of the feelings that were to manifest them- 
selves in the whole nation. At the same time, 
General York wrote to his King: "If I have made a 
mistake, I am willing to be shot, and will meet my 
fate with calmness and serenity, being conscious 
that I have always remained a faithful subject and a 
good Prussian. The time has come for Your Majesty 
to escape from the disastrous demands of an ally 
whose views concerning Prussia, if fortune had re- 
mained faithful to him, are still wrapt in impenetrable 
obscurity. These are the considerations that have 
decided him. Heaven grant that they may further 
the well-being of my country ! " 

For his part. General Macdonakl wrote, January 
1, 1813, to Major-General Bertliier : " General York 
has fully justified my estimate of him : I had clearly 
seen that he was our deadliest foe, but I should never 
have deemed him capable of such black treachery. 
I have always had the greatest consideration for his 
troops, and thoroughly confided in their honor." 

King Frederick William had no part in General 
York's defection. As soon as he heard of it, he 
summoned the Count of Saint Marsan, and earnestly 
disavowed the general's conduct. The French Min- 
ister was convinced by the King's loyal utterances, 
and told him that he would disbelieve the whole 
world before he would doubt the King. January 5, 
1813, he wrote to the Duke of Bassano : " Last even- 



132 MABIE LOUISE. 



ing, at eleven o'clock, the King sent to me the Baron 
von Hardenberg to announce liis decision. His 
Majesty was amazed and indignant at General York's 
defection. His first words were, ' It's enough to give 
one an attack of apoplexy.' What is to be done? 
The King has decided that His Majesty the King of 
Naples shall be asked to announce, in an order of 
the day of the French army, the King's disavowal 
and indignation ; that if General York cannot be 
arrested, he shall be judged in default ; that Prince 
von Hatzfeld shall go at once to Paris to convey 
to His Majesty the Emperor the expression of the 
King's feelings, and to manifest the same feelings 
to all Europe, by means of this exceptional mission." 
The Count of Saint Marsan wrote again to the Duke 
of Bassano, January 7 : "It is impossible, my lord, 
to exhibit more loyalty and exactitude in discharging 
one's obligations, than is shown here." And Count 
von Goltz, Prussian Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent 
to all the King's legations a circular letter, in which 
he said : " The King has done and will do all that 
lies in his power to prove that he remains faithful to 
his system and to his promises. (January 9, 1813.)" 
In reality, Frederick William had not yet made up 
his mind; he was hesitating. Never, perhaps, was a 
sovereign in a more perplexing position. Whichever 
way he looked he saw nothing but trouble, uncer- 
tainty, and misery. He asked himself what he ought 
to do, and his conscience gave only a confused and 
undecided reply. Being forced either to break his 



THE COUNT OF SAINT MAR SAN. 133 

word to France, which was able to crush him, or else 
to fight for her against friends who represented them- 
selves as liberators, this naturally loyal ruler strug- 
gled with doubts and hesitations which were really 
torturing. Is it credible ? Even after General York's 
defection, even after the extraordinary hatred of 
everything French that broke out in the whole 
Prussian kingdom, Frederick William was far from 
decided to break loose from Napoleon. 

It is a very significant detail that at this very 
moment, early in 1813, the Prussian court seriously 
contemplated a matrimonial alliance between the 
Crown Prince and a Princess of the Emperor's fam- 
ily. The despatch of the Count of Saint Marsan 
referring to this proposed marriage is dated Jan- 
uary 12, 1813, and it is very curious. It has never 
been published, and shows better than anything the 
ascendancy which Napoleon still exercised. In this 
despatch the Count began by reporting the remarks 
the King had made to Prince Hatzfeld, who was 
about to leave for Paris to visit the Emperor. 

" The King," said the Minister of France, " has in 
the first place overwhelmed Prince von Hatzfeld with 
attentions. He has shown him how highly he appre- 
ciates his services, the purity of his feelings, the 
justice of his opinions. . . . He then said to him, 
' Assure the Emperor that nothing can move me from 
my plan of alliance with him. Take every means of 
ridding him of every trace of suspicion or mistrust 
which he may feel toward Prussia. It is true that 



134 MABIE LOUISE. 



most of my friends are ill-disposed towards the 
French, and very naturally; but unless they are 
forced by the necessity of unendurable sacrifices, 
they will take no active steps ; it thus is no occasion 
for surprise at what happens in places whither the 
enemy penetrates ; but in those very places the inhab- 
itants have greeted the French army in the warmest 
way, when it was exhausted by all it had endured ; 
and this proves the purity of our intentions and their 
obedience to my orders. I think that I have seen 
proof that Austria will remain firm in its alliance 
with France. If that were otherwise, my position is 
very different from that of that power; I am the 
natural ally of France. If I were to change my sys- 
tem, I should always be sacrificed by the Russians, 
and then again by the French, who would treat me 
as an enemy, and with justice. I know there are 
madmen who look upon France as exhausted, but 
you will soon see it presenting an army of three hun- 
dred thousand men, as fine as the first one. I sup- 
pose that I shall have dark moments and sacrifices 
to endure ; I shall endure what I must to assure the 
peace and future prosperity of my family. Tell the 
Emperor I can make no more pecuniary sacrifices ; 
but if he will give me the money, I can still raise 
fifty or sixty thousand men for his service. More^ 
over, in the present circumstances it is fortunate that 
Prussia is tranquil ; for if there were to be an insur- 
rection in this country, it would be the spark that 
would set Germany ablaze." 



THE COUNT OF SAINT MABSAN. 135 

In this despatch the Count of Saint Marsan spoke 
thus of the matrimonial project : " The idea has been 
started here that it might be possible to conclude a 
family alliance between France and Prussia by the 
marriage of a Princess of the Imperial family of 
France with the Crown Prince of Prussia. This 
idea, which suggests the union of all their interests 
between the two powers, — a union already natural 
in view of the political condition, — has necessarily 
made an impression on the mind of so enlightened 
a minister as the Baron von Hardenberg, and has 
inspired him with the hope of seeing his work thus 
consolidated ; and after having assured the existence 
of Prussia, by a political alliance with France, of 
obtaining its restoration by a family alliance, which 
would remove all suspicion and mistrust, and engage 
France to restore Prussia to its place and make it her 
northern frontier." 

M. de Saint Marsan, further on in the despatch, 
thus reported Frederick William's conversation with 
Prince Hatzfeld concerning the proposed marriage ; 
"Coming thus to the plan of the marriage, this is 
what the King said to Prince Hatzfeld : ' If you have 
an opportunity, listen to what is said ; express your 
own opinions, but make no promises unless you have 
received orders.' Then the Prince asked if he could 
know what he really thought of it, and if in any case 
he, would follow this plan. 'I cannot conceal from 
you,' said the King, 'that as father of a family, I am 
averse to contracting an alliance from merely politi- 



136 MARIE LOUISE. 



cal motives. Nevertheless, if I see that there will 
result considerable advantages that will place my 
kingdom in a higher position than it now holds, I 
shall not hesitate.' " 

The French Minister thus closed his despatch: 
" Your Excellency may assure the Emperor that this 
report of the King's conversation with Prince Hatz- 
feld is absolutely accurate. Besides, it is in harmony 
with the King's upright and loyal character, and with 
the feelings he has always had for France, even when 
he was led into the war of 1806, to which it is noto- 
rious that he was opposed. Hence if Your Excel- 
lency gives Prince Hatzfeld any encouragement, you 
will find him eager to discuss the matter, although 
unofficially. As for me, I have spoken about this 
affair freely, because it is well known that I received 
personal confidences, and consequently I have been 
free to utter my own personal opinions. I have 
endeavored to convey the impression that I regard 
an event of this sort as certain to assure not merely 
the prosperity of Prussia, but also the peace of 
Europe, since it would dig the ground from beneath 
the feet of those evil citizens of Germany who are 
always hoping to lead their sovereigns into some 
course of action that would bring about general dis- 
order." * » 

January 15, the Count of Saint Marsan was still 
convinced that the Franco-Prussian alliance could be 
maintained. "If His Majesty the Emperor," he 
wrote to the Duke of Bassano, "judges it well to 



THE COUNT OF SAINT MAES AN. 137 



show confidence in this government, I am convinced 
that this alone would suffice to defeat the proposi- 
tions which might be made by England and Russia. 
Also that some consideration in the sacrifices to be 
demanded, a little money for securi'iig stores, and the 
maintenance of discipline among the soldiers, would 
prevent any explosion on the part of the inhabi- 
tants." 

While the French diplomatist was in full enjoy- 
ment of this optimism, Baron von Stein and General 
York were convoking the provincial states at Konigs- 
berg, and securing a decree to arm the entire popula- 
tion and to employ every resource against France. 
As for the King, he had not yet decided to speak out 
against Napoleon ; but he wished already to hold an 
intermediate position, to obtain the neutrality of Sile- 
sia, and by a general peace to secure the complete 
freedom of Prussia. Nearly thirty thousand French 
still occupied its capital, and, moreover, the Russians 
were approaching. He then made up his mind to 
take refuge at Breslau, whither he betook himself 
with the Ministers of France and Austria, and to 
await events. His Ministers continued to give the 
Emperor's representative the most friendly assur- 
ances. The Count of Saint Marsan wrote to the 
Duke of Bassano : — 

"Breslau, February 15, 1813. Baron von Harden- 
berg has sworn to me twenty times to-day that the 
system has not changed: that there have been no 
overtures, direct or indirect, with regard to approach- 



138 MABIE LOUISE. 



ing Russia. He has told me that he awaits with the 
greatest uneasiness and impatience an answer from 
Paris, because if, in view of tlie circumstances, His 
Majesty the Emperor approves the steps made towards 
establishing the neutrality of Silesia, and will himself 
give some aid to Prussia, the system will be more 
firmly consolidated than ever, and nothing but de- 
spair can throw Prussia into the arms of Russia. 
He has repeated to me how much the King's conduct 
since the retreat of the Grand Army proved his 
loyalty ; that if he had lacked this and had wished 
to change his system, he would not have waited for 
this moment, but would have availed himself of 
his earlier opportunities ; and that, moreover, they 
are not so foolish as to forget that nothing is easier 
than for France to make Prussia repent a breach 
of faith. ... A little repression is being put on the 
utterances of the young men. A severe reprimand 
has been given to a professor accused of exciting his 
pupils, indicating that the next enemy they would 
have to fight would be the French. The police have 
received instructions on this subject, and they needed 
them, for they are very incompetent." 

The Count of Saint Marsan, when he followed the 
King to Breslau, had left at Berlin the First Secre- 
tary of Legation, M. Edouard Lefebvre, who wrote 
to the Duke of Bassano, February 17, 1813 ; " The 
greater the discrepancy between events and what 
appears to be promised by the King's loyalty and the 
Minister's good disposition, the readier we must be to 



THE COUNT OF SAINT MABSAN. 139 

believe that matters are unsettled at Breslau, and 
that possibly no definite decision has been made. 
The King's timorous and hesitating character would 
justify this opinion. ... I sent to Your Excellency, 
by yesterday's courier, the Grazette containing an 
edict which declares that all young men more than 
twenty-four years old may enlist, if they choose, and 
that the King and the country will be grateful for 
this proof of devotion. The upshot is that enlistment 
is compulsory from seventeen up to twenty-four, and 
voluntaiy from twenty-four up to an undetermined 
age." 

Only one thing could have prevented the explosion ; 
that was the success of Prince Hatzfeld's mission in 
Paris ; but this fell to the ground. The Prince was 
unable to obtain from the Emperor either reimburse- 
ment for the supplies furnished or the evacuation of 
the strongholds. These two refusals discouraged the 
last French inclinations of the King, and drove liim 
still more towards Napoleon's enemies. 

Meanwhile Frederick William still continued im- 
penetrable, and gave the Count no chance to suspect 
his speedy decision ; and the Minister thus wrote in a 
despatch dated Breslau, February 21, 1813: "There 
has been no change in the way I am treated. The King 
sees no one here, as at Berlin, except at his dinner, 
from which the Diplomatic Body is excluded ; but he 
goes into private company, even when he has to pay. 
I met him the other evening at a ball of this kind 
where I knew that he was going ; he came up to me 



140 MARIE LOUISE, 



at once ; talked with me a long time ; asked me often 
what news I had from the Emperor, talking at great 
length about his indefatigable activity, and the im- 
mense advantages his strength gave him; he said 
nothing about the condition of the country ; besides, 
the place was too public. The Crown Prince and the 
other young Princes who were with the King also 
sought me out for particular attentions ; and all this 
caused great surprise in the assembled company." 

February 27, the Count of Saint Marsan gave up 
every illusion. In a despatch dated that day he 
wrote : " There is no longer, in my opinion, any 
doubt that Prussia is about to abandon the alliance 
with France. Baron von Harden berg said to me : 
' If Prussia should ever change its system, it could 
not be denied that it had been forced so to do by the 
harshness with which it has been treated, and by its 
receiving no answer on so important a subject as 
that of its advances at a time when, left to itself, it 
would be desired that it should neither make use of 
its own means, nor seek to lessen its misfortunes.' 
He assured me, moreover, that the condition of neu- 
trality was always in such a state that it could be 
revoked on forty-eight hours' notice ; but he did not 
conceal from me the fact that Russia is making all 
sorts of advances to Prussia." 

The next day, February 28, 1813, the courts of 
Saint Petersburg and Berlin concluded at Kalisz a 
treaty of alliance which was at first kept secret. 
Russia engaged to provide one hundred and fifty 



THE COUNT OF SAINT MARS AN. 141 

thousand men for the war against France ; and Prus- 
sia, eighty thousand men. The two powers agreed 
to use all their efforts to secure the adhesion of 
Austria. The Emperor Alexander promised not to 
lay down his arms until Prussia should be restored 
to the condition she was in before 1806. 

The existence of this treaty was kept hidden from the 
Count of Saint Marsan, and he was treated as cour- 
teously as ever. He wrote to the Duke of Bassano : — 

" Breslau, March 1, 1813. Although the agreement 
with Russia, and the perfect harmony existing be- 
tween the two courts is as evident as was the alliance 
with France scarcely a month ago, there has been no 
change in the formality and respect with which I am 
treated, not only by the court, but also by the public 
and the leading members of society. As to business, 
nothing is ever said about it ; and I, for my part, 
remain entirely passive ; I should only compromise 
myself, and consequently the dignity of His Majesty 
the Emperor, if, after all I have said, I should demand 
new explanations." M. de Saint Marsan already 
guessed the secret which was kept from liim. He 
had written to the Duke of Bassano, March 2 : " I 
have said that Prussia could not long play a doubtful 
part. I have just heard some news which leads me 
to think that it has decided, and that the threats and 
promises of the Russians have produced their effect. 
I understand that General Bliicher has been set free." 
And yet the French diplomatist still thought that 
the Prussian alliance might be saved. In the same 



142 MARIE LOUISE. 



despatch he said : " If His Majesty the Emperor 
does not judge it well to do anything for Prussia, it 
will declare against us, and will be forced to do this 
willy nilly. If anything is done for it, I am far from 
despairing of its retention in the system. Inasmuch 
as I am entirely without orders and instructions, and 
have no knowledge of what are the intentions of His 
Majesty the Emperor, and am, in consequence, unable 
to utter one word in the way of promises and positive 
encouragement, I confine myself to general discussion, 
to axioms and hypotheses, which I turn over and over 
in every way. . . . Prince Hatzfeld has sent a report 
dated February 14, in which he indicates a hope of 
obtaining something. The original was immediately 
read to me in confidence. In our last interview 
Baron von Hardenberg said to me : ' I cannot under- 
stand why His Majesty the Emperor does not con- 
sent to do anything for the King, and to give some 
sort of a positive promise ; he would never have a 
more faithful ally than he. He has proved this by 
the enormous sacrifices he has already made ; but no 
one seems to take any account of these.' " 

We are inclined to think that Napoleon could not 
have easily conciliated the Prussian nation, although 
he might have kept the government in his system of 
alliance if he had made it in time the indispensable 
concessions. King Frederick William and Baron 
von Hardenberg were distinctly frightened by the 
demagogic tendencies which manifested themselves. 
Towards the end of 1812 they were, we think, still 



THE COUNT OF SAINT IIARSAN. 143 

well disposed ; and if the Emperor had restored its 
strongholds to Prussia ; if he had paid for the supplies 
it had furnished ; if he had conceded some territory, 
it is our impression that the Cabinet of Berlin would 
have declared itself satisfied, and would have done 
its best to stem the torrent which threatened to 
carry away everything. Possibly it would not have 
succeeded, but it would at least have tried. If 
the nation in its enthusiasm especially yearned for 
revenge, what the calmer and more cautious govern- 
ment preferred was peace ; but an honorable peace, 
that should assign to Prussia an important position in 
Europe, instead of the enfeebled condition in which 
it was left. 

The die was cast; Napoleon, who, with wisdom, 
might have found a way to disarm the hatred of the 
Prussian people, was confronted by a bitter, implaca- 
ble adversary. The passions which republican France 
unchained against Europe were turned against impe- 
rial France. Sovereigns, ministers, generals, were 
about to become demagogues, to borrow the French 
phraseology of 1792, to promise constitutions as a 
means of arousing the different peoples against the 
ruler of the continent. Secret societies uttered cries 
of vengeance. Religion and science fostered the war- 
like spirit. Church pulpits and teachers' chairs 
were turned into public tribunes. The Prussian peo- 
ple seized their arms and rose like one man ; women, 
rich and poor, sent to the Treasury all their gold and 
silver and jewels, even their wedding-rings. These 



144 MARIE LOUISE. 



offerings were received with a gratitude that only added 
to the patriotic enthusiasm ; in exchange there were 
given objects in iron, of the same form, bearing this 
inscription : " I have given my gold for iron. 1813." 
The revolutionary weapons, which Napoleon had 
refused to employ against the King, were about to be 
used against him ; and to oppose them he had only 
the regular resources of monarchies by divine right. 

March 15, 1813, the Emperor Alexander had 
entered Breslau. King Frederick William had gone 
to meet him, and the two sovereigns on horseback 
had been greeted by the applause of the troops. 
Two days later, March 17, M. de Saint Marsan 
received official notice of the treaty concluded, Feb- 
ruary 28, between the two monarchs. " Your Excel- 
lency," he wrote to the Duke of Bassano, " will have 
concluded from the reports which I have had the 
honor of sending to you that the alliance between 
Prussia and Russia is definitely settled; that the 
King and the government are carried away, one may 
say, by the German revolutionary party, and that all 
possible means will be tried, and all the most turbu- 
lent individuals employed to arouse the whole Ger- 
man nation." The Count lingered a few days at 
Breslau, and did not receive his passports till March 
27. In a despatch dated that day he wrote: "I 
have had to exercise much patience and self-control 
to stay here as a spectator of all that has taken place ; 
nevertheless, I must say that both the government 
and private citizens have treated me most consider- 



THE COUNT OF SAINT MARSAN. 145 

ately. I venture to flatter myself that I have com- 
plied with His Majesty's wishes, and have closely fol- 
lowed the line of duty by leaving Breslau, without 
orders from His Majesty the Emperor, only when the 
government demanded it." War was declared be- 
tween France and Prussia. 



X. 

COUNT OTTO. 

IN 1812 the French Ambassador at Vienna was a 
diplomatist of great merit, Count Otto, who had 
for many years represented the Emperor Napoleon at 
the court of the Emperor Francis, and had been one 
of the principal negotiators of the marriage of the 
Empress Marie Louise. By his tact, his experience, 
and his conciliating character, he had won general 
sympathy at the Austrian court, where he was what 
in diplomatic language is called a persona grata. 
His despatches do him great honor. He knew how 
to tell the truth to Napoleon in the most respectful 
forms, and it was certainly not his fault if his sover- 
eign indulged in illusions, which were destined to be 
fatal, on the character and extent of the Austrian 
alliance. 

The main cause of Napoleon's errors was that 
politically he set too much importance on his mar- 
riage with an archduchess. He should have known 
that before becoming the father-in-law of the Emperor 
of the French, the father of Marie Louise was the 

Emperor of Austria, and that if, after his defeat at 
146 



COUNT OTTO. 147 



Austerlitz and Wagram he had to choose between 
his paternal affection and his interests as a ruler, his 
choice was not doubtful. From the moment when 
Russia, Prussia, and England promised him to restore 
Illyria, the Tyrol, and the Lombardo- Venetian King- 
dom, while France could only promise Illyria, — and 
even that was doubtful, — family considerations could 
have but little weight. Still, even after the Russian 
war. Napoleon might have made use of Austria. She 
would have been of great service in helping him to 
make an honorable peace with all the powers ; but to 
secure this peace he would have had to make consid- 
erable concessions, and that is what Napoleon did 
not wish to do. This is at least what we conclude 
from Count Otto's correspondence, many of whose 
despatches, almost all unpublished, we are about to 
quote. 

October 31, 1812, the Ambassador informed the 
Duke of Bassano, Minister of Foreign Affairs, of the 
excitement which was beginning to pervade Austria. 

" I w^as told this morning," he wrote, " that the 
Archduke John had said at dinner at Duke Albert's, 
that at last the time had come for sharpening their 
daggers and falling on the French. It was added 
that I had sent a note to complain of this violent 
utterance. This specimen will give you, my Lord, 
an idea of the lies in circulation here, which, it is 
hoped, will disturb the good understanding between 
the two governments. Often these lies are accom- 
panied by so many plausible details that it is hard for 



148 MARIE LOUISE. 



me to defend myself. Some agitator, who saw me a 
few days ago leaving the Palace, had the insolence to 
spread abroad the rumor that I had been to Laxen- 
burg to inform the Emperor of the sad condition of 
our army and to ask for a re-enforcement of fifty 
thousand men." 

November 10, 1812, Count Otto informed the Min- 
ister that Austria intended not to continue the war 
as a French ally, but to endeavor by diplomacy to 
secure a general peace : " In my frequent interviews 
with Count Metternich I have been able to see that 
he was inclined towards a plan, which he could hardly 
hope would succeed, and which he feared to commu- 
nicate to me. Being unused to this reserve, I tried 
to find out his secret, and it was only after many 
conversations that I was able to convince myself that 
the Austrian Cabinet desired to be charged by us with 
the honorable duty of carrying messages of peace not 
merely to Russia, but even to England. If I had any 
doubts about these intentions, they would have been 
removed by the interview that I had yesterday with 
His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, on the occasion 
of the Festival of the Order of Saint Stephen. After 
expressing to me his hopes for the success of Count 
Lauriston's mission, he said : ' In the winter you will 
have time to negotiate ; all Europe craves peace ; in 
case you cannot come to an understanding with the 
court of Saint Petersburg, I will speak to it in your 
name, if your master gives me authority, for you 
understand, of course, that I shall do nothing without 



COUNT OTTO. 149 



your consent. I think, moreover, that my interven- 
tion will not be without result. But peace to last, 
must be general, and England should share in it : I 
have no relations with that power ; nevertheless, if 
your master desires, I will gladly take steps to learn 
its intentions.' " 

In the same despatch Count Otto expressed the 
wonder whether Austria was sincere or was playing 
a double game. "I confess," he went on, "that so 
far nothing justifies such a supposition. Austria has 
an evident interest in the humiliation of Russia. 
The Viennese court has rejected with scorn the 
propositions that have been made to it since the 
beginning of the war ; it has acted at Constantinople 
in perfect [conformity with our views ; it has done 
everything to prevent the ratification of the treaty 
of Bucharest ; and appears to have at least delayed 
it. Its ruler's tastes, its financial condition, make it 
more and more desirous of peace : it asks for nothing 
better than a chance to repair its losses in the late 
wars, and the public itself is so convinced of this, 
that, in spite of the outcries of the enemies of France, 
it is mainly to the French alliance that it should 
ascribe the prosperous state of its new issue of notes, 
— a real barometer of public opinion." 

Nevertheless, the Ambassador noted the progress 
which Napoleon's enemies v/ere making in Vienna. 
" The Russians," he wrote, November 25, " have on 
their side almost all the aristocracy of the Continent, 
and the English are the allies of all the bankers and 



150 MABZE LOUISE. 

merchants of every country. Hence there is no 
need of surprise at the inconceivable speed with 
which false rumors spread through Europe. Here 
the Greek merchants, who control two-thirds of the 
commerce of Vienna, are entirely in the interest of 
Russia. A few days ago they started the rumor 
that Napoleon had been taken prisoner. This absurd 
statement brought about a fall on 'Change of ten 
per cent; so great is the contradiction between 
public confidence and the passions of the moment." 

When the disasters in Russia became fully known, 
these passions spread alarmingly. Count Otto wrote 
a letter to Napoleon himself, December 18, 1812, in 
which he said : " Your Majesty knows the elements 
that compose the Viennese public too well not to 
conjecture the impressions caused by recent events. 
The most alarming rumors, the most painful con- 
jectures and hopes have followed one another rapidly. 
Nothing was talked about but the destruction of the 
Grand Army, and the impossibility of beginning 
another campaign. The Emperor and his Ministry, 
who have a better knowledge of the resources of 
France, took a fairer view of the condition of things. 
They are confident of the success of a second cam- 
paign ; but they none the less desire to be commis- 
sioned by Your Majesty with the honorable task of 
trying to negotiate during the winter." In the same 
letter Count Otto confessed with noble frankness the 
dangers of the situation. " Such," he added, " is the 
force of the passion of the moment, and such the 



COUNT OTTO. 151 



blindness of the multitude, that they persist in see- 
ing and dreading nothing but France, although she 
alone is capable of some day saving Austria. At 
the present time, Sire, Russia is full of attentions to 
Austria ; all the intrigues of the Cabinet and of its 
numerous agents have but one aim, — that of bringing 
the court of Vienna into a new alliance, which would 
be for her a new source of misfortune." 

Ten days later, December 28, 1812, the Ambas- 
sador wrote to the Duke of Bassano : " However 
painful may be the picture of what is going on here, 
it is my duty, my Lord, to draw it for you without 
concealment. It is perhaps without a precedent that 
the government of a great power should have formed 
the idea of deserting an ally, after its first reverses, 
to join the flags of its enemy. Nevertheless, this is 
what the majority of the influential men of this 
country have dared to urge immediately after the 
news of the disastrous retreat of our army. The 
endeavor has been made to circumvent the Emperor 
by all the means which intrigue and corruption 
could employ against his good faith. It has been 
represented to him that since France no longer had 
an army, it would be absurd to try to continue the 
war alone against the Russian giant ; that the court 
of Berlin was unable to continue its armaments ; that 
Bavaria, the Duchy of Warsaw, and Saxony had 
neither men nor money left ; that the North of Ger- 
many was ready to hoist the standard of revolt and 
to drive out the sovereigns who had been merely 



152 MARIE LOUISE. 



French prefects ; that consequently it was necessary 
to recall the auxiliary corps, to change his policy, 
and to profit by this favorable moment to retake the 
province he had lost ; that more than sixty millions 
of Germans and Italians were ready to declare for 
Austria, and to make common cause with her; that 
France herself was on the eve of a great revolution ; 
that the last conspiracy in Paris had had many far- 
spreading roots in England, in Spain, and even in 
the Grand Army, where the Emperor Napoleon had 
narrowly escaped assassination by some partisans of 
Malet and Lahorie ; finally, that the time had come 
to deliver Europe from a yoke that had become 
insupportable, and to restore to its people their old 
laws and their independence." 

The Empress of Austria, the step-mother of Marie 
Louise, was desirous of playing the part which the 
beautiful Queen Louisa had taken at Berlin before 
the battle of Jena. Count Otto knew very well that 
the wife of Emperor Francis was secretly at the head 
of the party which desired war against Napoleon, and 
in this same despatch of December 28, 1812, he said, 
speaking of this Princess's views : " Although the 
Empress is not free to make her opinion known, it 
is notorious that she favors exclusively all the ene- 
mies of the present policy, and that she associates 
only with the boldest and most zealous coalitionists. 
One recent anecdote may serve as an example of her 
opinions. Before the last Austrian war, the Arch- 
duke Charles had shown some opposition to a new 



COUNT OTTO. 153 



apjjeal to arms; she went to him, fell at his feet, and 
besought him not to oppose a measure which might 
restore to the monarchy its former glory and avenge 
all the insults it had endured. It is said that the 
Archduke Charles could not resist her tears, and that 
he voted, against his judgment, for a war of Avhich 
he foresaw the disastrous issue. I have to-day been 
informed that, like her brother Maximilian, she has 
joined the Society of the Friends of Virtue." 

Count Metternich, who was accused of sympa- 
thizing with France, was violently attacked by all 
the intimates of the Empress. The Emperor's Am- 
bassador thus expressed himself on this subject in the 
same despatch : " While thus breaking out against 
France, the faction has not forgotten to attack the 
main defender of the French alliance. Count Metter- 
nich. Not a day passes that they do not invent 
some new way of discrediting him, and announce 
authoritatively that he is about to be replaced by 
M. von Stadion. Count Metternich has so little 
support at court and in society, that he is obliged 
to associate with his most active enemies, in order 
to persuade them to pardon him for the decision he 
has made. Nine-tenths of the public have been in 
succession misled by the false rumors, the lampoons, 
and even the caricatures which are allowed to circu- 
late." 

What was the attitude of Emperor Francis amid 
this general excitement ? He acted T\dth the great- 
est prudence, coming out neither for nor against 



154 MAEIE LOUISE. 



Napoleon. At heart he yearned for contmued har- 
mony with his son-in-law, and in no way desired a 
restoration of the Bourbons to the throne of France. 
The memory of many centuries of rivalry between 
the Bourbons and the House of Austria was always 
fresh. The Emperor Francis, we are convinced, 
sincerely desired the consolidation of the new French 
dynasty ; but this desire did not go so far as to sac- 
rifice to its sovereign the essential interests of his 
monarchy. At any rate, at the end of 1812, he was 
perhaps, of all the Austrians, the one least hostile to 
Napoleon. When at this decisive hour he wished 
to inspire his son-in-law with ideas of moderation 
and wisdom, he was not false to him: he loyally 
sought the best means of saving him. 

Count Otto thus spoke of this monarch in his 
despatch of December 28, 1812 : " The 'Count of 
Sickingen said to me, ' After the interests of his own 
country, the Emperor has nothing nearer his heart 
than to see the French government and the new 
dynasty establish itself. He fears that the distrac- 
tions and the ever-renewing wars may not leave the 
Emperor Napoleon time enough to finish his work. 
He is afraid for his daughter and for his grandson, 
whom he loves much. His uneasiness has affected 
his health. The intrigues of malcontents torment 
him without moving him. It is desirable that the 
Emperor Napoleon write to him often, to strengthen 
the confidence with which he inspired him at Dres- 
den. You cannot think how great an influence a 



COUNT OTTO. 155 



letter from your sovereign has on the Emperor's state 
of mind. Whenever he receives one, he talks about 
it for several days, weighing every word and encour- 
aging himself with the hopes it contains.' ... I 
concluded by thoroughly reassuring the Count of 
Sickingen on the turn our affairs must take within 
two months. He left me to go to the Emperor, with 
Avhom he passes every evening in absolute solitude. 
Minister Metternich spoke to me to the same effect. 
He is anxious that the two sovereigns should have 
very close relations, and that they should write to 
each other their impressions with perfect freedom. 
' Arrange matters,' he said to me yesterday, ' so that 
they shall speak to us unreservedly, and that we shall 
know exactly what the Emperor Napoleon means. 
We think that we can be useful to him ; we who are 
outside of the vortex which surrounds you, can get 
another view of things from yours, and in this case 
we will give you our opinions frankly.' " 

A few days later, when the defection of the Prus- 
sian contingent was known in Vienna, XlJount Metter- 
nich, while still protesting affectionate sentiments 
towards France, noticeably modified his attitude. He 
began by clearing away the vagueness which had 
hitherto shrouded his thoughts. Taking courage 
from what had happened in North Germany, he 
announced certain ideas which seemed at the time 
to be only wishes, but were almost ready to become 
demands. Count Otto perfectly understood the im- 
port of this altered policy. " In uttering the word 



156 MARIE LOUISE'. 



peace,'' he wrote to the Duke of Bassano, January 10, 
1813, "the Austrian Cabinet modifies its position, 
and puts the nation and the army on its side. Hence 
public opinion gives it a power which it cannot expect 
from either its troops or its finances. But this word 
will not be uttered, until authority has been received 
from its august ally. That, my Lord, is the point 
of view from which the present condition of things 
should be regarded. This Cabinet will have great 
power as an armed mediator, and very little as an 
ally; and when we consider the internal passions 
that agitate the monarchy, we cannot withhold our 
gratitude from the Sovereign and his Prime Minister 
for so firmly resisting the shock of recent events. 
Austria's feelings are unalterable, in spite of the solic- 
itations of every sort by which she is beset. I have 
new proof of this in the interview with which the 
Emperor honored me this morning, on the occasion of 
the festival of the Order of Leopold. His Majesty 
renders perfect justice to our ability to carry on the 
war, but asks what will be the result of it. He 
thinks that France and Russia can do each other no 
real harm ; that these two giants will grind to pow- 
der whatever happens to be between them ; and that 
at the end of the bloodiest conflict the world will 
ever have seen, peace will be made at last on nothing 
but heaps of ashes." 

Anxiety had so wrought on the health of the 
Emperor Francis that the great reception announced 
for New Year's Day had been given up. Metternich 



COUNT OTTO. 157 



told Count Otto that he had seen this monarch in 
very difficult circumstances, when his own life and 
the preservation of the Empire were at stake ; but 
that he had never seen him more troubled than he 
was at that moment. 

The Emperor Francis was still hesitating ; but 
Metternich had drawn up a programme which he 
thus sums up in his Memoirs : 

" Napoleon's failure against Russia has altered the 
situation of the Emperor of the French, as well as 
that of the other powers. 

" The result for Europe will be peace. 

" To bring about a peace is the true task of Austria. 

" What course is to be followed to secure peace ; a 
real peace, not a disguised armistice, like all the 
treaties concluded with the French Republic and 
with Napoleon ? 

" The only course is to compel France to withdraw 
into limits which warrant the hope of a durable 
peace, and of the re-establishment of a political equi- 
librium between the powers." 

The Austrian statesman added to the statement of 
this programme : " The attitude of Austria as an 
armed mediating power is in accordance with both 
the geographic situation of the Empire and with its 
strength, and will permit the Emperor Francis to 
have the last word in w^ar, as in peace. We should 
work unremittingly to arm ourselves to make war. 
The Emperor's pact will be made sure by the time 
which we shall thus gain." 



158 MARIE LOUISE. 



Napoleon, on the other hand, imagined that Aus- 
tria, instead of mediating, would be his ally, offensive 
and defensive ; and without asking anything for her- 
self, would aid in preserving all the French Empire, 
even Rome, even Holland, even the Hanseatic towns. 
The lack of harmony was not proclaimed, but it 
existed in a latent condition ; and early in 1813 it 
was easy to foresee that the son-in-law and the father- 
in-law would soon quarrel in spite of the protestations 
of friendship which they lavishly uttered, and in 
spite of the announcement of an early formal cor- 
onation of Marie Louise and of the King of Rome — 
a ceremony which Napoleon thought would touch 
the paternal heart of the Emperor of Austria and 
strengthen the bonds of alliance. 

Nevertheless the French Ambassador at Vienna 
wrote to the Duke of Bassano, January 18, 1813 : 
" In the most critical moments I have endeavored, 
my Lord, to betray no distrust. I think that noth- 
ing would so injure our relations with the Emperor 
of Austria as the idea that he was misunderstood by 
his august ally. Long study of this monarch's char- 
acter has convinced me that with a very just mind 
he combines principles of uprightness and delicacy, of 
which I have received most touching proofs. It is 
not he who has been able to conceive the idea of prof- 
iting by the impression made in different parts of 
Europe by the disasters of the Grand Army; the 
faintest show of such a suspicion would pain him 
greatly. . , , The news of the approaching corona- 



COUNT OTTO. 159 



tion of Her Majesty the Empress and of the King of 
Rome has produced the most favorable impression 
here. I know that the Emperor has been touched 
by it, as a new proof of the confidence of his august 
son-in-law. . . . The Minister told me that the 
French court must have seen from all the communi- 
cations made to it, how devoted is this government 
to the principles of the alliance, and how interested 
it is in the happiness and prosperity of the Imperial 
household of France. The well-known feelings of 
the Emperor for his beloved daughter leave no doubt 
on this subject." 

The coronation of the Empress Marie Louise and 
of the King of Rome, Avhich in fact never took place, 
had been set for March 7, 1813. Count Otto thus 
spoke of it in his despatch of January 19 : " Every 
one knows, my Lord, that France is invulnerable ; she 
can be weakened only by her own dissensions. The 
solemn ceremony of March 7 will be a new benefit 
from our regenerator, and a new bond between the 
French Empire and Austria. After long and terrible 
disturbances, this bond, which the wise policy of His 
Majesty has formed for the happiness of Europe will 
be the warrant of a long repose which His Majesty 
can enjoy by busying himself solely with efforts 
to raise his people to that high degree of strength, 
wealth, and greatness to whicli his genius has never 
ceased to aspire since the memorable day of Brumaire." 

After this, unfortunately inexact, prophecy, the 
Ambassador went on : " Being thus for a long time 



160 MAVtW LOUtSE. 



sent out as a scout far from my country, I am accus- 
tomed to sound an alarm at the first sight of danger. 
But Your Excellency would judge me ill if he should 
imagine that here I use the language which is to be 
found in my letters. Firm confidence in the princi- 
ples and in the strength of my government, a calm 
attitude in difficult situations, a habit of yielding 
trifles in order to have the right to insist upon impor- 
tant matters, great consideration for the self-respect 
of the Emperor and his Minister, and an unremitting 
effort to place everything in the light of their inter- 
est rather than of ours — that, my Lord, is the method 
I have adopted ; I have found it successful in other 
equally difficult missions, and it has received His 
Majesty's approbation and your own." 

This line of conduct was wise, and the Ambassa- 
dor's position was certainly as good as circumstances 
permitted. Yet Napoleon, whose suspicions were 
justly aroused by the strange retreat of Prince 
Schwarzenberg's auxiliary corps on Cracovia, and by 
Austria's vast armaments, imagined that some one 
else than Count Otto would more easily detect the 
real designs of the Viennese court, and early in 
February he sent as his successor General the Count 
of Narbonne. So far from uttering the least com- 
plaint, Count Otto wrote, February 6, 1813 : " After 
a continuous residence of eleven years in a foreign 
country, Your Excellency will readily believe that 
the announcement of my recall has given me great 
pleasure, I shall lay on the steps of His Majesty's 



COUNT OTTO. 161 



throne the expression of the sentiments which have 
always animated me in his service, and the profound 
conviction that my efforts have not been without 
their use. Whatever may be the task with which 
His Majesty may in future deign to entrust me, he 
will always find me zealous in carrying out his orders, 
and in giving proofs of my unbounded devotion to 
his person and to the glory of his reign." 

Count Otto remained for some weeks in charge of 
the Embassy, and did not make over the post to his 
successor until the middle of March. Up to the end 
of his service he was in receipt of protestations of 
friendship from the Emperor Francis and from his 
Minister. In a despatch of February 13, 1813, he 
wrote : " Count Metternich said to me, ' Our alliance 
with Russia was monstrous ; it had but one ground, 
and that was a very precarious one : the exclusion 
of English commerce. It was a military alliance, 
extorted by the conqueror. It was doomed to be 
broken. Our alliance, on the other hand, rests on 
the most natural and most permanent interests. It 
must be as lasting as the needs that have produced 
it. It is we who have sought it, and we concluded it 
only on ripe reflection. If w^e had it to make over 
again, we should not draw it up differently. We 
desire it just as it is. It will secure peace, and tend 
afterwards to strengthen it. When the Emperor of 
Austria decided to send to Paris an Ambassador 
Extraordinary to be present at the coronation of the 
King of Rome, he chose Prince Esterhazy, the mem- 



162 MABIE LOUISE. 



ber of his court who was most conspicuous for his 
wealth and the vast extent of his estates. The 
Prince seemed much flattered by his selection, and 
he intends to perform his duties in the most brilliant 
way. He will leave in a fev/ days. Prince Schwar- 
zenberg arrived yesterday. He intends to start at 
once for Paris, with the twofold object of explain- 
ing to His Majesty the present condition of affairs, 
and of giving Europe an unmistakable proof of the 
intentions of Austria, by showing at the French 
court the commander of the auxiliary forces report- 
ing to his commander for orders.' Those are the 
Minister's own words. He takes the greatest pains 
to use the language best fitted to convince the courts 
of London and Saint Petersburg of the close harmony 
existing between France and x4ustria." 

Judging from the remarks which Metternich still 
made to Count Otto, the Emperor Francis's sympa- 
thies appeared to be for Napoleon, and all his mis- 
trust to be of the Czar. " Our alliance with France," 
said the Minister, " is so necessary that if you were 
to break it to-day, we should propose to you to 
re-establish it on the same terms and with the same 
conditions. France has done us much harm, but it 
is for our interest to forget the past. We wish to be 
of use to her at this moment, because at some other 
time she will be able to render the same service to 
us. This alliance is not the result of war, or a con- 
dition of peace, like that of Tilsitt. It is the product 
of ripe reflection, and has been prepared by succes- 



COUNT OTTO. 163 



sive, spontaneous advances, as well as by the close 
union of the two Imperial families. Receive it, 
then, as a fact, and regard it as an incontestable truth 
that we seek only your good; that we no longer 
fear France, but the Russians, whose power you 
have augmented by your successive concessions." 
(Despatch of February 17, 1813.) 

In the same report Count Otto spoke at length of 
the alarm felt by the government about revolutionary 
tendencies, which were growing every day : " There 
is another enemy whom the Cabinet of Vienna fear 
much more than the Russians ; that is the populace, 
or rather the spirit of resistance which is beginning 
to show itself all over Europe. The Hungarians 
have proposed to the government to organize wliat 
they call an insurrection ; but the Cabinet will take 
good care not to accept this offer, which seems to 
hide a secret intention of arming in accordance with 
the Russian designs. The conviction prevails here 
that the Russians, in concert with the English, are 
making every effort to persuade the populace of 
different nations to declare themselves independent 
of their rulers; that the greater part of Europe is 
threatened by a terrible conflagration; that all the 
sovereigns allied with France have become so unpop- 
ular that the slightest breath would overthrow them ; 
finally, that nearly all Germany is on the eve of the 
most terrible disturbances. Silesia especially arouses 
distrust, and it is thought certain that the centre of 
the Russian army is marching directly on this prov- 



164 MABIE LOUISE. 



ince to foment an outbreak. From a mass of letters 
which the Minister is receiving from all quarters, it 
seems that the Emperor Alexander is acquiring a 
moral force which is very dangerous in the existing 
circumstances. His most pretentious promises are 
justified by his gentleness, which extends to the 
Poles. Austria's attitude will be able to stem this 
torrent until our armies can act. She is convinced 
that in concert with France she can put an end to this 
revolutionary invasion, and she wishes to make use 
of her central position to pacify Europe. Although 
she does not count much on the success of her first 
steps towards England, she will thus be able to 
make Russia uneasy and force her to peace. But 
she judges a congress indispensable for this happy 
result, and she intends by me^ns of the continental 
peace to induce England to make one. The Minister 
said that France once at peace would put an end 
to the temporary importance of the Russians, and 
that she would regain all the ascendancy which her 
strength, her wealth, and her moderation ought to 
guarantee to her forever; finally, that peace alone 
will be for France and for Austria, her ally, a much 
more solid conquest than any successful campaign 
could win." 

Count Otto always thought that Marie Louise's 
marriage would establish a useful friendship between 
the two Empires, but he did not hide the perils of 
the situation, and especially the excitement of all 
Germany. In his despatch of February 19, 1813, he 



COUNT OTTO. 165 



said: "The solemn ceremony preparing in France 
cannot fail to produce the happiest results, by show- 
ing His Majesty's just confidence in an Austrian 
Archduchess. Never has a princess deserved better 
of the nation, or been placed on the French throne 
under happier auspices. She has become the precious 
pledge of a political alliance, which but for her would 
never have existed, or, at least, would have been 
extremely precarious." 

After this homage to the Empress, the diplomatist 
added with praiseworthy frankness : " Europe has 
need of calm ; evils of all sorts have too long weighed 
on its populace not to irritate them to the furthest 
point. I beg Your Excellency not to form any illu- 
sion on the feelings that have been seething in (ier- 
many for six years, which the governments are no 
longer able to restrain. Probably most of the allied 
sovereigns are loyal ; but the people are against us, 
with scarcely an exception, and only a long peace 
can efface the memory of their sufferings. Foreign 
agents, who may express other views in Paris, do not 
deserve your confidence, and would give the lie to 
everything generally known of the tone reigning 
in the capitals of the Confederation, and often in 
their rulers' cabinets. Never has a government more 
urgently needed to conciliate the nation than Austria. 
It is hard to give you a just idea of the agitation that 
prevails as the Russians approach the frontier. . . . 
Count Metternich said to me : 'I spend four or five 
hours every day with the Minister of Police. Oui' 



166 - MABIE LOUISE. 

prisons are full of people whom we have had arrested 
to prevent the harm they might do. Every day there 
is danger that the Emperor will be insulted, or that 
I shall be assassinated. Soon the Prussian insurrec- 
tion will spread to the Rhine. In Westphalia the 
discontent is extreme. The explosion will come 
when it is least expected. Nothing can equal Rus- 
sia's crafty policy. Those people are of every coun- 
try ; they speak all languages ; they flatter every 
passion. They demand of the people no sacrifices, 
and appear in the guise of liberators. The Confed- 
eration formed under your auspices at Warsaw has 
made no sensation in Galicia ; but as soon as the 
Russians had mentioned the restoration of the king- 
dom, the leading men of that province noticed a great 
excitement, and told us every day of their anxiety.' 
While speaking, the Minister's eyes filled v/ith tears ; 
he confessed that in every branch of the administra- 
tion he encountered an opposition which rendered 
his position very painful. With the exception of the 
Emperor and Prince Schwarzenberg, he did not 
mention a single man of mark who belonged to his 
party." 

Count Otto thus concluded his energetic despatch: 
" In this state of things, my Lord, Fj-ance can count 
only on herself and her immense force. The people, 
misled by Russian machinations, are ready to break 
every bond which unites them to the reigning dynas- 
ties. The next campaign cannot fail to drive the 
Russians back to their icy deserts. But Germany, 



COUNT OTTO. 167 



Poland, Prussia, and perhaps Austria itself, Avill 
present nothing but centres of insurrection, hate, and 
vengeance." 

In a despatch of February 28, Count Otto once 
more insisted on the extreme seriousness of the situ- 
ation, and on the cries of alarm uttered by Count 
Metternich : " The position of this government," he 
said, "becomes more delicate every day. The Minis- 
ter has shown me documents proving the existence of 
a plot to assassinate him. Two officers were charged 
with this deed. They have been arrested as well as 
a secret committee of v/hich they were members. 
He showed me other papers disclosing other con- 
spiracies of the sort fostered by Russia. ' It is sup- 
posed,' he added, ' that the French alliance depends 
on my life. I am ready to lose it for a principle 
which I deem useful for my country, but we are so 
beset that we have to keep these plots secret in order 
not to add to the excitement. . . . Our position 
would be less painful if you would be franker with 
us. We keep you informed of all our views and 
actions. You make no reply ; we are left in absolute 
ignorance of your political plans. Do treat us like 
friends, anxious to serve you, and give us strength 
by having confidence in us.' " 

This confidence did not exist on either side. 
Napoleon desired war, and his father-in-law desired 
peace. Napoleon was anxious to retain everything, 
and the Emperor Francis thought he should give up 
some of his territory. The Cabinet of the Tuilerie^ 



168 MABIE LOUISE. 



refused any clear explanation with the Cabinet of 
Vienna, because it felt that only by equivocation 
could be kept up, if not the reality, at least the 
appearance of harmony. It must be acknowledged 
in justice to Count Otto, that he neglected nothing 
to free his sovereign's mind from dangerous illusions, 
and to set before him in true colors the condition of 
Germany in general, and of Austria in particular. 
Napoleon would have done well if he had listened to 
the Vvdse and respectful advice of this diplomatist, a 
man of honor, who, at the risk of displeasing his 
master, had the courage to tell him the whole truth. 



XI. 



THE COUNT OF NARBONNE. 

YILLEMAIN says at the beginning of his Cori' 
temjyorary Memories^ Historical and Literary: 
" I do not believe that at the end of the last century, 
and in the first years of this, two epochs crowded 
with extraordinary events and with men famous in 
politics and war, there was a rarer and more culti- 
vated mind, a more generous heart, a man more agree- 
able in the commerce of life, or one bolder, more sen- 
sible, or more capable of great things, than Count 
Louis de Narbonne, a Minister of King Louis XVI. 
under the Legislative Assembly, and an aide-de-camp 
of Napoleon, in 1812. Fortune alone was wanting 
to this man, whose merit, in the judgment of the 
best and wisest heads of the Empire, such as Daru 
and MoUien, seemed sufficient for anything. Al- 
though her favorite on a few rare, memorable occa- 
sions, even then she offered him only situations that 
were too far gone, too fatal and desperate, in which 
one thought of winning honor and then dying, but 
not of repairing too great errors, or of putting a stop 
to their inevitable consequences." 

169 



170 MABIE LOUISE. 



Napoleon had a special fondness for the Count of 
Narbonne, appreciating to the fullest extent his edu- 
cation, courage, and agreeable character. He drew 
back from his exile this emigr^ who had lived out of 
France for seventeen years, and in 1809 restored him 
to the French army with the grade of Division General. 
The Emperor whose instincts were at bottom very 
aristocratic, delighted to see in the former knight of 
honor of one of the daughters of Louis XV. a finished 
type of courtesy, which recalled at the court of the 
Tuileries the best traditions of the court of Ver- 
sailles. After he had selected this former Minister 
of War of Louis XVI. for his aide-de-camp, he con- 
gratulated himself on the discovery that no officer of 
his guards was more at his ease in a drawing-room, or 
more light-hearted in a bivouac. Li the disastrous 
retreat from Russia no one displayed more coolness 
and courage. Hence, Napoleon, in the beginning of 
1-813, thought at a critical and decisive moment no 
one would so well represent him at the court of 
Vienna as this man of the old regime, whose solid 
and brilliant qualities could not fail to be recognized 
by the high Austrian nobility. 

In the Em23eror's eyes, the Count of Narbonne, 
who had entered the diplomatic service only a few 
months before, was a model diplomatist. We read 
in the Memorial of Saint Helena : " Speaking of his 
Ambassadors, the Emperor remarked that M. de Nar- 
bonne was the only one who really deserved this 
title, and had really discharged its duties. And this, 



THE COUNT OF NAEBONNE. 171 



he said, lie did by his personal advantages, not merely 
those of his intelligence, but much more those of his 
old-fashioned morals and manners, and of his name ; 
for as long as one has simply to give orders, the first 
comer will do ; nothing more is required ; possibly an 
aide-de-camp is the best person to employ. But when 
one is compelled to negotiate, it's a different thing ; 
then one ought to send to the old aristocracy of 
Europe representatives of that aristocracy, for it is 
after all a sort of Freemasonry. If an Otto, an 
Andreossi enter the drawing-rooms of Vienna, all 
expression of opinions is hushed, all easy intercourse 
ceases; they are intruders, outsiders; the mysteries 
are interrupted. It's just the other way with a Nar- 
bonne, because with him they have affinity, sympathy, 
identity ; and a woman of the old nobility may grant 
every favor to a plebeian without betraying to him 
the secrets of the aristocracy." 

We incline to think that Napoleon exaggerates 
a little the importance of the aristocratic element in 
diplomatic aff'airs, and we must say that in spite of 
charming manners and fascinating intelligence, this 
model Ambassador did not prevent Austria from 
declaring war with France. But to quote again 
from the Memorial : " The Emperor,'^ says the Count 
of Las Cases, " was very fond of M. de Narbonne ; 
he was much attached to him and mourned his loss 
deeply. He made him his aide-de-camp only because 
Marie Louise, he said, through some intrigue of 
her household, refused to receive him as her knight 



172 MAEIE LOUISE. 



of honor ; a post for which, Napoleon added, he was 
exactly suited. Until he was appointed, he added, 
we were dupes of Austria. In less than a fortnight 
M. de Narbonne had seen through everything, and 
Metternich was greatly annoyed by this appointment. 
Yet, said the Emperor, how complicated fate is! It 
was, perhaps, the very success of M. de Narbonne 
that wrought my ruin. His abilities were at any rate 
rather injurious to me than useful ; for Austria, seeing 
that she was found out, threw aside her mask and 
hastened her action. Had we been blinder, she would 
have been more reserved, and slower. She would 
have prolonged for some time her natural indecision, 
and meanwhile other chances might have arisen." 

Let us now hastily run over the most important 
despatches of the Count of Narbonne which we have 
examined in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs ; they are mainly unpublished. % 

The new Ambassador wrote to the Duke of Bassano, 
March 22, 1813 : " Your Excellency will, I hope, for- 
give me, if in these first moments after my arrival, 
which are necessarily taken up by duties and cares of 
every sort, my correspondence is far less useful than 
that of my predecessor. I can only speak of my 
presentation to their Majesties and to the members 
of the Imperial family. Externally everything went 
off in the most decorous way, and my first audience 
with the Emperor, who treated me with the utmost 
kindness, had, outside of his genuine interest in the 
health and happiness of his august son-in-law, no 



THE COUNT OF NABBONNE. 173 

other result than a number of tolerably vague speeches 
on the universal necessity of peace ; on the strength 
of the army which France was about to send forth ; 
on the decision already taken by the King of Prussia 
who had been forced to it, the Emperor said, by 
unanimous opinions of all classes of his subjects. It 
was easy for me to lay weight on the terrible danger 
there was for princes who preferred obeying to com- 
manding, and who let themselves be driven to what 
had already reduced Prussia from the rank of a great 
power, and was possibly to complete its ruin. The 
Emperor agreed that this state of things was already 
one of revolution which was more disastrous than 
any defeat ; this naturally gave me an opportunity to 
say that no Prince who had received so many proofs of 
the devotion of his people could fear to be abandoned 
by them Avhen he ordered what alone could assure 
their present and future tranquillity. A promise to 
assent to whatever the Emperor shall do or desire to 
bring about peace ; the necessity of a great develop- 
ment of the forces of France to bring this about, a 
thorough knowledge of the vastness of its resources 
and their great power were then mentioned. The 
sincerity with which all this was uttered tempted me 
to speak at once of an active co-operation which should 
abridge and put a speedy end to all difficulties ; but I 
discerned his fear of any discussion which for me too 
would have presented many difficulties that were not 
settled before I left Paris ; moreover I wished to 
avoid the appearance of seeking an immediate and 
direct answer." 



174 MARIE LOUISE. 



So for both Emperor and Ambassador the only. way 
of seeming to have an understanding was by avoiding 
an explanation. " The Emperor," M. de Narbonne 
continued, "appeared grateful for my reserve, and 
spoke with pleasure of the happiness which his 
daughter, Her Majesty the Empress, enjoyed." 

Then the Ambassador spoke of his reception by the 
Empress of Austria, who was compelled to conceal 
her hatred of Napoleon and of France beneath the 
forms of politeness. '' My audience with the Em- 
press gave me no light. She was very glad that the 
Emperor had returned in good health, and sympathized 
with our Empress's pleasure who is always writing 
about her numberless grounds for content. There 
were many affectionate questions about the King of 
Rome, many inquiries about the state of the arts in 
Paris ; very little was said about the last campaign, 
and there were numerous most civil commonplaces. 
The Empress's faintness put an end to the audience." 

As for Metternich, he greeted the new Ambassador 
with extreme courtesy, but he did not hesitate to say 
that Napoleon ought to give up some of his territory. 
M. de Narbonne wrote, March 24 : " M. de Metternich 
said that if the Emperor of France was willing to be 
a monarch thrice as strong as Louis XIV., and master 
of Europe solely by the weight of his strength, his 
position, and his genius, all difficulties would soon 
arrange themselves ; but that it was necessary that 
England should acquire a conviction of this truth; 
that this power alone had the indisputable power of 



THE COUNT OF NARBONNE. 175 

treating directly with France, and that he believed, 
for example, that she would never consent to leave us 
Holland, unless new and repeated triumphs on the 
part of the Emperor should accustom her to the neces- 
sity of giving way. ... I should be unjust to M. de 
Metternich if I seemed to infer from what I have 
said that he is not perfectly loyal to us in every 
respect. A thousand reasons incline me to think 
thus." 

The Count of Narbonne was at first over optimistic ; 
but a few days sufficed to give him an exacter appre- 
ciation of the state of things. " It seems impossible, 
my Lord," he said in his despatch of April 1, 1813, " to 
refuse to believe that the excitement now prevailing 
threatens Germany with a most violent, wide-spread, 
and possibly, sudden explosion. Every country into 
which any Russians have been able to make their 
way seems to have earnestly set about to turning 
every German into an implacable foe of France ; I 
say every German, because they pretend to recognize 
no national differences ; and now, more than ever, 
publications on the present state of affairs urge the 
disregard of whatever might weaken the common 
hatred of us, which should inspire every one who 
lives between the Rhine and the Niemen. These 
publications infest the whole Austrian Empire. In a 
word, the whole condition of things here repeats that 
of Prussia before the battle of Jena. It is plainer to 
me than ever that on our side we have, as you truly 
said to me, only the Emperor, M. de Metternich, and 



176 MARIE LOUISE. 



M. de Schwarzenberg. Doubtless, the Emperor holds 
to France by interest, loyalty, and sentiment ; but 
surrounded as he is by our enemies, fed with all the 
poisons presented to him in every form, terrified by 
the consequences that may follow every decision, it 
is almost impossible that he should not often hesitate 
and grant concessions which will only strengthen our 
foes." 

Austria was to change gradually, but quickly, from 
an active alliance to a passive one ; then to neutrality ; 
then to armed mediation ; finally, to a declaration of 
war against her former ally. M. de Narbonne fore- 
saw and predicted this threefold phase of the Aus- 
trian policy. " As for M. de Metternich," he added 
in the despatch of April 1, 1813, " I am always glad 
to repeat it, I believe in his complete good faith 
toward the French policy ; but only so far as this 
shall lead us to peace ; and since every day inclines me 
more to respect his acuteness and ability, I wonder if 
it would be strange that in case he saw this peace im- 
possible, he might not think it well to say : ' I have 
above all things wished to try to secure peace, the 
sole, real happiness of my country, and for that pur- 
pose I have braved everything ; but I have not 
neglected to prepare for war. France has refused 
to agree to reasonable propositions which had been 
accepted by all the other powers ; now I propose to 
place Austria at the head of your enemies, and to 
resume in Europe our proper attitude and rank.' 
Cannot this language and this conduct insure Aus- 



THE COUNT OF NAEBONNE. 177 

tria the preservation of its position, which a change 
of policy, witliout apparent cause, woukl compel it to 
abandon ? " Alas ! why did not Napoleon pay atten- 
tion to this really prophetic despatch ? 

One of the causes for the protracted hesitation of 
the Cabinet of Vienna to pronounce against France, 
was the di*ead of the revolutionary ideas promulgated 
by Napoleon's enemies. M. de Narbonne wrote to 
the Duke of Bassano, April 6, 1813 : ''I had the honor 
of informing you that M. de Metternich appeared quite 
as alarmed as I at the terrible consequences that would 
follow the appeal to the people, w^hich now, all the ene- 
mies of France are making, — an appeal which seems to 
transform the counsellors of Russia, Prussia, and Swe- 
den into a committee of public safety. General Witt- 
genstein's proclamations naturally brought up this 
matter. M. de Metternich thinks that the absurdity of 
these proclamations has diminished their danger. But 
that of Kutusoff, also addressed to the Germans, whom 
it treats as one people, without speaking of Austria, 
especially attracts his attention. In fact, it speaks 
in the name of Russia and Prussia, which affirm that 
the shameful yoke of the Confederation of the Rhine 
is broken, of restoring liberty to Germany by means 
of a constitution for which both kings and people 
shall be consulted. ' Is it a National Assembly, or a 
Cortes, that their constitution promises us ? ' asks M. 
de Metternich. ' What a fire-brand is thrown on what 
is already ablaze ! ' " 

The Austrian Minister added, "But let the Emperor 



178 MARIE LOUISE. 



Napoleon help us to resist this movement which is as 
violent as it is general. Now that you are here, you 
can see the strength and the skill with which the 
Austrian government has to contend. We may de- 
spise and triumph over the clamors of society which 
urges war with the wildest passion ; but the reason- 
able and reasoning majority of the nation, which 
desires nothing but peace, and has hitherto been 
held back only by the hope of obtaining it, how is 
that to be satisfied, if, as Count Bubna writes, the 
Emperor of France should consider himself driven 
to a war to the death with Prussia and Russia, in 
which we cannot feel sure that we shall not be impli- 
cated? Be sure that if Prince Schwarzenberg's army 
corps, which the Emperor Napoleon has blamed for 
not going to Minsk, could have been there, which 
would have made it experience the fate of the rest of 
the allied army on its return, nothing could have 
prevented the Austrian army from marching against 
the French, whatever the government might have 
tried to do." 

Metternich no longer tried to conceal his thoughts. 
" The Austrian government," he said, at the end of 
his interview with M. de Narbonne, " is like a swim- 
mer struggling with strength and courage against 
the current, and hoping to succeed ; it would be cer- 
tain, if the Emperor Napoleon were willing to aid it 
a little ; that is to say, if he were to consent to condi- 
tions of peace equally compatible with his glory and 
his honor." 



THE COUNT OF NARBONNE. 179 

M. de Narbonne did not confine himself to question- 
ing the court and the ministry whose real intentions 
he soon divined ; he examined with an intelligent eye 
all classes of Austrian society. He wrote to the Duke 
of Bassano, April 17, 1813 : " Turning to the petty 
details of the spectacle offered at this moment by the 
city and court of Vienna, I find every cafe and place of 
meeting full of nothing but hatred of the French ; they 
are charged with the desperate financial condition, 
the ruin of commerce, and the horrible dearness of 
everything not of the strictest necessity. If I observe 
the army, I find no ofiicers who do not tremble at the 
idea of making war for us, and none who, thinking 
they will no longer have to face the Frenchmen who 
have so often humiliated them, do not believe and say 
that the time is come when they can easily recover 
with interest their honor and the territory of Austria. 
I need not repeat what has so often been told Your 
Excellency about the spirit which animates society." 

Encouraged by events, Metternich, while main- 
taining an air of perfect courtesy, went so far as to 
give it to be understood that Austria would be glad 
to see Napoleon lay aside his title of Protector of the 
Confederation of the Rhine. " If Prussia and Russia," 
he said to M. de Narbonne, " regard the suppression 
of the title of Protector of the Confederation of 
the Rhine as an indispensable condition of peace, we 
cannot in conscience fight to defend it and to assume 
its preservation." The Ambassador in reporting the 
Austrian Minister's remarks,, in his despatch of April 



180 MARIE LOUISE. 



10, adds, " I replied that in such a proposition I could 
see nothing but a somewhat extraordinary desire to 
humiliate the Emperor, who did not like conditions 
of that sort. At this, M. de Metternich seemed 
frightened at the mere idea that I could credit him 
with a desire of that sort, and I must confess that I 
have never heard him utter a word which was not 
an expression of his respect and admiration for the 
Emperor's person and genius, and, above all, never 
one which had the slightest air of a threat." 

The Count of Narbonne clearly discerned beneath 
the formulas of official politeness the real plan of the 
Cabinet of Vienna, and his only hope, though it was 
but a vague one, was not the co-operation, but the 
neutrality of Austria. He wrote, April 14, 1813 : 
' " The government, even if it Avere as well disposed 
in our favor as my predecessor liked to hope, would 
not put upon its shoulders the burthen of universal 
blame by hoisting the French colors. But a complete, 
absolute neutrality would, I think, prove an attrac- 
tion ; at the present moment it would allay the 
general agitation and satisfy the dignity of the gov- 
ernment by giving it an air of resoluteness as well 
as the spirit of expectation and fickleness which 
reappears at every epoch. . . . There remains to 
examine what should be the guaranty of such neu- 
trality. That is a question which I am not called 
upon to solve. Doubtless the surest would be the 
success which awaits His Majesty's arms. I will only 
add that if by force of circumstances which it is im- 



THE COUNT OF NARBONNE. 181 



possible to foresee, these successes should be lessened 
or deferred, co-operation, supposing it possible, would 
at once change neutrality into absolute defection. 
The Austrian government is not in a position to 
withstand the force of public opinion. The feelings 
of alliance and affection for France, which the Em- 
peror preserves with more constancy than firmness, if 
I may so say, are insufficient to raise him above the 
exasperated passions of the multitude." 

At the moment Napoleon Avas about to open the 
campaign, M. de Narbonne, who was more a man of 
honor than a courtier, deemed it a patriotic duty to 
inform him of the truth. " Everything convinces me," 
he wrote to the Duke of Bassano, April 23, 1813, " of 
the understanding which exists between the Emperor 
of Austria and our enemies, and I confess that I 
think liim almost ready to support all the proposi- 
tions which Austria will finally announce, and which 
will be, I think, very different from what our Sover- 
eign has the right to expect. I could not help being 
extremely struck by hearing the Emperor of Austria 
say in a very peremptory way that his forces shall 
never be employed for our master unless he shall 
accept reasonable propositions, by his keeping silence 
when I asked him who shall be the judge of these con- 
ditions, and what he will do if he is not satisfied 
with them. It is impossible not to perceive in this 
silence exactly what has been repeated to me by M. 
de Metternich, that, in this last case, taking part 
against us would be the natural result of his position 



182 MABIE LOUISE. 



as armed mediator." At the risk of offence, the 
Count of Narbonne had the noble courage to tell his 
sovereign what he thought. By this loyal frankness, 
he followed the dictates of his conscience, and impar- 
tial history has no fault to find with him. 



XII. 



THE REGENCY. 



WHILE Europe was preparing to enter upon a 
struggle for life or death with Napoleon, he, 
as confident, as eager, as in the glow of his youth, 
was arming for the colossal war with untiring ac- 
tivity. It seemed that he had but to stamp on the 
ground to call forth numberless legions. In thi'ee 
months an army of three hundi-ed thousand men was 
raised, equipped, and brougiit together. As General 
de Segur says : "At any hour of the day or night the 
Emperor, whatever he was doing, could have told the 
numbers, the composition, the strength of every one 
of the thousands of detachments of every branch of 
the service which he had set in movement from every 
part of the Empire, the way they were uniformed and 
equipped, the number of marches each one had to 
make, the day, the place, even the hour at which each 
one was to arrive." 

His language had never been haughtier. He went 
in pomp at the head of a grand procession to open 
the sittings of the Legislative Body, January 14, 

1813, and said with an air of great dignity: "The 

183 



184 MARIE LOUISE. 



disasters produced by the severity of the climate 
have thoroughly demonstrated the strength and 
greatness of this Empire which is founded on the 
co-operation and the affection of fifty millions of cit- 
izens and on the geographical wealth of the finest 
countries in the world. It is with keen satisfaction 
that we have seen our people of the Kingdom of 
Italy, those of Holland and of the united depart- 
ments rivalling with the French, and feeling that they 
have no other hope, future, or happiness than in the 
consolidation and triumph of the great Empire. . . . 
The French dynasty reigns and will continue to reign 
in Spain. ... I am satisfied with the conduct of all 
my allies. I shall not abandon one of them; I shall 
maintain the integrity of their states. The Russians 
shall return to their terrible climate." Alas! every 
sentence was a new illusion. The new Frenchmen 
were about to turn against France ; the French 
dynasty in Spain was to be driven out. It was not 
Napoleon who was to abandon his allies, but his allies 
who were to abandon Napoleon. The Russians were 
not to return to their terrible climate ; it was our 
magnificent climate to which they were to advance. 
The great man was no longer a prophet. 

Forgetting the insignificance of family alliances 
where politics were concerned, and the many wars 
waged in the Middle Ages and in modern times 
between closely related sovereigns. Napoleon imag- 
ined that the Emperor Francis would never be able 
to abandon the cause of his daughter and his grand- 



THE HEGENCY. 186 



son, and with a simplicity unworthy of so mighty a 
genius, he fancied that a few friendly letters and a 
few affectionate words would outweigh the interests 
and ambitions of the Austrian policy. Marie Louise 
readily lent herself to her husband's illusions, and 
wrote to her father letters full of serene confidence, 
as if the thought had never entered her head that 
clouds could arise between Austria and France. The 
young Empress's courtiers Avere never tired of speak- 
ing to her of her husband's certain triumph. She 
imagined that he was invincible. All who went near 
her, the members of the Austrian Embassy as Avell as 
the French themselves, spoke in the most confident 
terms. No disagreeable truth ever came to her ears. 
Happy as a wife and as a mother, she looked forward 
to the future with calmness, and golden visions floated 
above the palaces in which she lived. 

Marie Louise's letters to her father, even after the 
campaign had begun, were sprightly. " The Em- 
peror," she wrote to him, "sends many kind messages; 
he displays much affection for you, and not a day 
passes that he does not tell me how much he loves 
you, especially since he saAV you at Dresden. . . . 
The Emperor begs me to assure you of his friendship 
and to write to you often. You may judge whether 
he has to tell me twice. . . . You will have seen in 
the newspapers all the patriotic gifts the French have 
made to their Sovereign. The people show the 
warmest devotion ; this love moves me to tears. . . . 
The Emperor is very well ; very cheerful, in spite of 



186 MABIE LOUISE. 



his hard work. It is said that he already has a large 
number of troops. More are going to start in a few 
days. It is really touching to see the activity, the 
patriotism, and the military ardor of the nation. . . . 
The armies are said to be magnificent. The Emperor 
is perfectly satisfied, and hopes soon to force his ene- 
mies to make a lasting peace." 

Before opening the campaign Napoleon wished to 
visit the Invalides with the Empress. This visit 
took place March 7, 1813. The old soldiers were 
drawn up in line of battle in the large courtyard. 
The Emperor talked with them for some time and 
decorated a good many. Then he went into the 
church with Marie Louise and heard a Te Deum. 
After that he visited with the Empress the bakery, 
the refectories, and the infirmary where four cente- 
narians, who had been present at the battle of Fon- 
tenoy, were presented to him. 

Napoleon, who was in perfect health, robust, full 
of hope, and more eager than ever for war, impa- 
tiently awaited the opening of the conflict. Yet 
wishing to provide for the chance that he might be 
slain, and recalling Malet's conspiracy, he decided, 
before leaving, to make the Empress Regent. Hith- 
erto, during the Sovereign's absence from the Empire, 
the government had been confided to a Council of 
Ministers, presided over by Cambaceres. But it might 
happen that a Minister should die or fall ill, and in 
that case no one was authorized to assume his signa- 
ture unless by an Imperial decree. Napoleon wished 



THE REGENCY. 187 



to obviate this inconvenience by establishing a re- 
gency. He had an investigation made of what had 
been done in France at different periods of its history 
when Regents liad governed the country. Then 
when all was ready he summoned a Privy Council at 
the Elysee, March 30, 1813, to which were admitted 
the Empress, the Queen of Spain, and Queen Hor- 
tense. After the reading of the decree establishing 
the regency, Marie Louise swore to discharge her 
duty as a good wife, a good mother, and a good 
Frenchwoman, according to the laws and constitu- 
tions of the Empire, and to surrender her powers 
whenever the Emperor should desire. She sent a 
messenger to Vienna to inform her father of her new 
dignity. "You can readily understand," she wrote, 
" how much I am flattered by this new proof of the 
Emperor's confidence." March 31 Marie Louise was 
present at the Council of the Ministers. She was 
intelligent, attentive, and seemed to take a serious 
interest in the business. When the reports of the 
police were about to be read. Napoleon listened to a 
few, and said to Archchancellor Cambacer^s : " It is 
not necessary to sully a young woman's mind with 
certain details." 

To lighten the task which the regency imposed 
upon the Empress, the Emperor appointed the Baron 
of Meneval her private secretary. He was, accord- 
ing to the Duke of Rovigo, "the man in whose 
honesty he had the completest confidence, his own 
private secretary. He submitted to his loss, and 



188 MABIE LOUISE. 



begged M. de Meneval to write to him every day." 
Cambaceres was made First Counsellor of the Re- 
gency. Marshal Moncey was given the part of Gen- 
eral commanding the Empress's Guard, and the Duke 
of Cadore that of Secretary of State during the 
absence of Daru, who accompanied the Emperor to 
the war. 

The functions of the Regent were carefully defined 
in an order signed by Napoleon at Saint Cloud, just 
before his departure, April 18, 1813. This said: 
" The Empress-Regent will preside over the Senate, 
the Council of State, the Council of Ministers, the 
Privy Council, and the extraordinary councils to be 
holden whenever the Empress-Regent shall think 
proper — when urgent circumstances shall demand 
prompt measures that cannot await our decision. 
She shall have the right to grant pardon, to commute 
punishment, and to grant reprieves to the execution 
of sentences and condemnations. . . . She may sign 
decrees containing nominations of minor importance, 
or when urgent circumstances shall require it. By 
minor importance is understood, for the War Depart- 
ment, second lieutenants, lieutenants, captains ; in the 
Navy Department, officers up to and including the 
rank of lieutenant; and in the Law and Adminis- 
trative Departments, the officials whom we do not 
appoint by our own choice. ... If the Empress- 
Regent does not choose to preside over the Senate, 
her place shall be taken by our cousin, the Prince 
Archchancellor, by virtue of the general commission 



THE BEGENCY. 189 



granted by this order, which commission also confers 
upon him the right of presiding, when the Empress- 
Regent does not herself preside, over the Council 
of State, the Council of Ministers, and the Privy 
Council." 

It was arranged that Marie Louise should hold 
every month, and oftener if necessary, diplomatic 
receptions, without taking any part in the discussion 
of foreign affairs, and that she should receive every 
day a report from the Duke of Lodi, the Chancellor 
of the Kingdom of Italy. The Archchancellor 
Cambaceres, First Counsellor of the Regency, and 
General Savary, Duke of Rovigo, ^linister of the 
General Police, were to send a daily report to the 
Emperor, who at a distance, as well as at home, held 
in his hand the reigns of government. 

Wishing to make her duties as Regent easy for a 
young woman of twenty-one. Napoleon had decided 
to trace for her in his letters the line of conduct she 
was to follow, and to send to her minutes of the let- 
ters she was to write, or of the speeches she would 
have to make ; she herself desired this. These letters 
were separate from the private correspondence ; they 
had an official character and a special form. 

The Emperor, aware that he might lose his life in 
the terrible conflict he was about to begin, desired, 
by assuring the position of the Empress, to give her 
a proof of his affection, and he caused the Senate to 
arrange the dower she should receive if she should 
become a widow. This was fixed at an annual 



190 MABIE LOUISE. 



income of four million francs, part to be paid by the 
nation, and part from the Crown estates. The estates 
set aside for the dower were the castle and forest of 
Compiegne and the forest of Laigle, valued together 
at eight hundred thousand francs ; the forest of 
Villers-Cotterets, the forest of Eu and of Aumale, 
with the Castle of Eu, the forest of Soignes, valued 
together at one million two hundred thousand francs ; 
and in addition two million francs in funds of the 
Treasury. The Empress, too, was to have a life use 
of the Palace of the Elysee and of the Great and 
Little Trianon. 

Prince Schwarzenberg, who had just arrived in 
Paris, and in the presence of Napoleon seemed like 
a subordinate before his chief, took very good care 
not to disturb the Empress by any indication of the 
possibility of a rupture of the alliance between Aus- 
tria and France. To all appearance the relations of 
the two empires had never been more cordial. So 
great was still the ascendancy of the hero of Wagram 
that Prince Schwarzenberg, who had been sent to in- 
sinuate to him that Austria would not draw the sword 
unless in view of peace, and of a German peace, did 
not dare to make the statement. Napoleon over- 
whelmed him with attentions, and with his lists in 
his hand, tried to convince him that in France, Italy, 
Spain, and Germany, he had eleven hundred thousand 
men under arms, and that these men outnumbered 
the Prussians and Russians. He showed himself 
disposed to give to Austria Silesia, a million Poles 



THE BEGENCY. 191 



and Illyria, and he pretended to believe that his 
father-in-law meant to remain faithful to the treaty 
of alliance of March 14, 1812. According to this 
treaty, an Austrian auxiliary force was placed under 
the direct orders of the Emperor of the French. 
Consequently Napoleon told Prince Schwarzenberg 
that he was going to command this Austrian army 
corps to march to upper Silesia to light against the 
enemies of France. Prince Schwarzenberg bowed 
without making any objection, and Napoleon thought 
himself justified in looking upon General Frimont, 
then at the head of the Austrian contingent, as his 
subordinate. Hence, he wrote to the Emperor 
Francis : — 

" Saint Cloud, April 13, 1813. My Brother axd 
VERY Dear Father-in-law : Prince Schwarzenberg 
has handed me Your Majesty's letter. I read it with 
great pleasure, and I have talked with him for a long 
time with perfect frankness. I can only refer to 
what he will report to Your Majesty. I have been 
much pleased with General Bubna's conduct during 
his stay here. I should be glad if Your Majesty 
would give him some mark of your satisfaction. I 
am on the point of starting for Mayence ; I had not 
meant to be there before the 20th, but the news I 
have received of the enemy's movements on the left 
bank of the Elbe have decided me to hasten my 
departure by a few days. So I intend to enter 
Mayence the 15th or 16th. As soon as the e-ampaign 
is opened, I shall send from Prague orders to General 



192 MARIE LOUISE. 



Frimont to denounce the armistice and to assume 
command of the army corps of Prince Poniatowski. 
I shall keep Your Majesty informed of what goes on. 
I beg you not to doubt of my sincere attachment ; it 
is unalterable." 

The Emperor knew very well from the Count of 
Narbonne's reports that he ought to distrust Austria ; 
but he hid from others, and perhaps from himself, his 
suspicions ; and fancying that a single victory would 
suffice to preserve the alliance of his father-in-law 
and of all the princes of the Confederation of the 
Rhine, he tried to inspire his wife, as well as his 
generals and Ministers, with his own confidence in a 
speedy and brilliant triumph. He imagined himself 
still in the days of Austerlitz and Jena. 

As for Marie Louise, she saw with sadness her 
husband's departure. The thought of being Regent 
of the vast Empire and of the Kingdom of Italj", 
flattered her but little. She had never been ambi- 
tious, and fear of the responsibility outweighed the 
delights of power. She was, moreover, determined 
blindly to follow the orders of her husband, who 
should rule the Empire from afar. 

After an affectionate leave-taking from his wife 
and his son, Napoleon started to assume command 
of his armies, and the Moniteur announced his 
departure from Saint Cloud by this simple sentence : 
"April 15, His Majesty the Emperor left for May- 
ence to-day at one in the morning." 

A few hours after her husband's departure, the 



THE EEGENCY. 193 



Empress-Regent wrote to the Baron of Meneval, her 
secretary : — 

" You know, of course, that the Emperor is gone. 
I like to think that you, too, miss him. I beg of you, 
if M. Fain is still there, to tell liim that I sliould 
like to have him give me news of the Emperor; I 
have had no chance to say this myself. I beg of you 
also to send me a copy of the list of guests which 
the Emperor desired sent in the course of the day. 
I beg of you to believe me your attached 

" Louise." 

The Regent appeared in her new dignity, April 18, 
at a reception of the Diplomatic Body at Saint Cloud. 
Surrounded by Princes in high positions, Ministers, 
high officers of the Crown, Grand Eagles, a lady of 
honor, officers and ladies in waiting, she wore her 
new rank with dignity and affability. " General sat- 
isfaction was felt," says the Duke of Rovigo in his 
Memoirs, "at seeing the Empress Marie Louise clad 
with this authority ; she was known to be kind and 
tender; she was much loved and esteemed; those 
who had to do with her in private life had nothing 
but good to say of her, and it is true that she had 
won the esteem of the nation, which had much 
affection for her. This was due to the fact that 
on every occasion when she had to appear, she was 
always surrounded with the splendor which etiquette 
demanded." 

Marie Louise still believed in the friendship of her 
father and her husband ; and if she had been able to 



194 MABW LOUISE. 



foresee how imminent was war between Austria and 
France, she would have felt even keener regret at 
Napoleon's departure. As for him, he knew full 
well that the part he was about to play was full of 
peril. But for men of his sort, danger is a pleasure. 
With their pride and audacity they find joy in tempt- 
ing, braving, and defying fortune. The need of 
strong emotions is the keynote of their character. 
They like neither repose nor safety. To rulers of 
that kind a prosperous but uneventful reign seems 
like a degradation, and desiring for their subjects as 
well as for themselves excitement and adventures, 
the}^ think themselves sent into the world to provide 
material for history. Such was Napoleon, a high 
player and a great actor, who lived for posterity. 



XIII. 



LUTZEN AND BAUTZEN. 



THE day after Napoleon's departure, Prince 
Schwarzenberg found the Empress-Regent sad 
and anxious. He was more open with her than he 
had been with her redoubtable husband, and he let her 
see the possibility of a break between her father and 
her husband. Marie Louise's eyes filled with tears. 
Prince Schwarzenberg spoke in a still more alarm- 
ing way to the Duke of Bassano. He considered 
the possibility of Napoleon's not accepting Austria's 
mediation, and went so far as to say : " Politics made 
the marriage ; politics may unmake it." 

For his part, the Count of Narbonne, the French 
Ambassador at Vienna, wrote to the Duke of Bassano, 
May 2, 1813 : " People who have not been outside of 
this city for twenty years, say that never has society 
been so scandalously frank in its opposition to what 
appears to be the professions of the Emperor and 
his Minister. Is it the fault of the government, or 
its intention? Or, being unable to prevent it, is it 
this spirit which causes so much uncertainty and 
condemns the government to a course, which, in 

195 



196 MABIE LOUISE. 



any other circumstances would prove the blackest 
treachery ! That is a question which one cannot 
help asking one's self." 

Marie Louise, who read the despatches, was much 
disturbed by the state of affairs. She had an inter- 
view with the First Secretary of the Austrian Embassy, 
M. de Floret, who after Prince Schwarzenberg's de- 
parture, was in charge of the Embassy. "I am 
assured," she said to him, "that Austria means to 
side against France." 

M. de Floret seemed sincere when he besought the 
young sovereign to cast out such fears from her mind. 
" But I hear it said every day," the Empress went on. 
" The Emperor is very uneasy about it, not merely 
on my account, but also because of his friendship for 
my father since he saw him at Dresden. Judge for 
yourself how this condition of things distresses me. 
I think that at Vienna my husband's real strength 
is not understood. Soon his armies will be very 
much larger even than they now are. I know this, 
now that I see the lists. The French have never 
shown such ardor. If my father should declare 
war against France, the most terrible consequences 
for himself and for Austria might follow. Write to 
Vienna. My father will believe you more than he 
will believe me." 

M. de Floret did his best to reassure the Empress. 
He told her that the Emperor Francis's character and 
his affections for a beloved daughter were a guaranty 
for the future ; that he had had enough of war, and 



LUTZEN AND BAUTZEN. 197 

now desired nothing but peace, which Avas necessary 
for both Austria and France ; and that he wanted 
quietly to devote the rest of his life to his people and 
his family. This comforted Marie Louise, who began 
to talk about Napoleon, of his kindness as a family 
man, of his domestic excellence which made him a 
model husband, and she persuaded M. de Floret to 
promise to Avrite this to Vienna. She herself sent her 
father a letter, in which, after expressing her fears, 
she invoked the ties of blood. " The Emperor said 
to me," she wrote, " the Sovereign to wdiom I am 
most strongly bound is your father. I am sure that 
if he should let himself be led by his wife he would 
regret the loss of my friendship." At this time 
Marie Louise had a sincere affection for her husband, 
and the idea that she might one day desert him never 
occurred to her. She discharo^ed her duties as Rescent 
like a good Frenchwoman, a good wife, and a good 
mother. 

Meanwhile, Napoleon delighted to be once more at 
the head of his troops, plunged into his duties as 
commander-in-chief. Never had he more ardently 
loved war. The terrible lessons of the Russian cam- 
paign had been completely thrown away upon him. 
He was confident that his revenge would be most 
brilliant, and fancied that though he might have had 
to yield to the elements, men would never conquer 
him. The victory he won at Liitzen, May 2, 1813, 
made him imagine that he would always be the mas- 
ter of Europe. His soldiers, who were scarcely more 



198 MARIE LOUISE. 



than boys, did wonders. Marshal Ney had said to 
him : " Sire, give me those young and brave con- 
scripts, I will lead them wherever you please. Our 
old fellows know as much as we do ; they judge the 
difficulties and the field, but these brave boys are 
afraid of nothing; they don't look to the right or 
the left, but always straight ahead; it's glory that 
they want." In the battle the French conscripts and 
the Prussian students rivalled one another in bravery 
and daring. Almost every general was wounded. 
While the King of Prussia and the Emperor of 
Russia looked down upon the carnage from the top of 
a hill. Napoleon was in the middle of the fire, spur- 
ring on his recruits by words and gestures. " To-day 
belongs to France," he shouted. "Forward! The 
country is watching you. Learn how to die for it." 
And after the battle he said: "In the twenty years 
that I have commanded French armies I have never 
seen more bravery and devotion. My young soldiers' 
honor and courage streamed from every pore." Yet 
this victory, which was hotly disputed, was incom- 
plete. After all his obstinate efforts and a loss of 
twelve thousand men, Napoleon had captured only 
two thousand prisoners, and having no cavalry, he 
could not pursue the enemy. 

From Pegau he wrote. May 4, 1813, the following 
letter ; — 

" My Brother and very Dear Father-in-Law: 
Knowing the interest which Your Majesty takes in 
my success, I hasten to inform you of the victory 



LUTZEN AND BAUTZEN, 199 



which it has pleased Providence to grant to my forces 
in the field of Liitzen. Although I was anxious to di- 
rect myself all the movements of my army, and was thus 
exposed at times to the musketry fire, I was untouched, 
and, Heaven be praised, am in the enjoyment of the 
best of health. I have heard from the Empress, with 
whom I continue to be very well pleased. She is 
now my Prime Minister, and discharges her duties 
to my great satisfaction. I must tell Your Majesty 
this, for I know how it will gratify your paternal 
heart. Your Majesty must believe in the esteem and 
thorough respect I feel towards him, and especially 
in my sincere interest in his happiness." 

The same day Napoleon wrote to the Archchan- 
cellor Cambaceres : — 

" My Cousin : You will see by the despatches sent 
to the Empress what is the present state of affairs. 
It could not be better. The bravery, zeal, and devo- 
tion the young soldiers show is unexcelled. They 
are full of enthusiasm." 

May 6 the Emperor sent to the Minister of Public 
Worship the text of a circular wliich the Empress- 
Regent was to forAvard to the bishops of the Empire. 
It ran thus : — 

" Bishop : The victory won at Liitzen by His 
Majesty the Emperor and King, our very dear hus- 
band and Sovereign, can only be regarded as a special 
act of divine Providence. We desire that on receipt 
of these presents you should make arrangements for 
the singing of a Te Deum, and for returning thanks 



200 MABIE LOUISE. 



to tlie God of battles ; and that you should add such 
prayers as you may thmk proper to secure the divine 
protection for our armies, and especially for the preser- 
vation of the sacred person of His Majesty the Em- 
peror and King, our very dear husband and Sovereign. 
May God guard him from every peril ! His safety 
is necessary for the happiness of Europe, and for 
religion, which he has aided and is called upon to 
strengthen. He is its sincerest and truest protector. 
This letter having no other aim, we pray God to have 
you in his holy keeping. Given at our Palace of 
Saint Cloud." 

No pains were spared to kindle the enthusiasm of the 
Parisians. Liitzen was celebrated with more pomp 
than Austerlitz. Sunday, May 23, 1813, the Empress- 
Regent went in state to Notre Dame, to be present at 
the Te Deum sung in honor of the new victory. The 
church was sumptuously decorated with lights, hang- 
ings, and carpets. In the choir, to the right of the 
altar, stood the Empress's throne. At one o'clock 
she started for the Tuileries in a state coach, and 
followed by a brilliant company, drove to the cathe- 
dral. The Archbishop of Paris at that time was the 
great orator of the Constituent Assembly, Mirabeau's 
rival, the former Abbe Maury, who had been made 
a cardinal. When Marie Louise reached the thresh- 
old of the cathedral he addressed her as follows : 
" Madame : The presence of Your Imperial and Royal 
Majesty in this sanctuary makes known to your peo- 
ple the new and conspicuous blessings with which the 



LUTZEN AND BAUTZEN, 201 



Most High has crowned the ever victorious arms of 
your august spouse. If all the French people are over- 
whelmed with joy at having to-day in their love to 
thank God for so much glory, what must be the happi- 
ness of a heart called upon to share it upon the throne ? 
Religion is about to enrich itself, in its prayers, with 
all the credit which is assured by your virtues at the 
moment when your piety has selected it for the expres- 
sion of your gratitude to the King of kings." 

After this ingenious bit of flattery, the eloquent 
cardinal went on, alluding to the coronation of the 
Empress and of the King of Rome, Avhich, it was 
supposed, would take place when the war was over, 
as an epilogue to the victories. " The same temple," 
he said, " in which the whole Empire meets to raise 
to Heaven the pious transports of its gratitude, will 
soon be opened, Madame, to celebrate in your honor 
another historic rite as dear to our Sovereign as to 
his subjects. Then we shall see again, amid universal 
applause, the august heroine of this national festivity, 
deservedly placed before our altars, by the side of the 
restorer and the heir of the throne of Charlemagne. 
Religion, happy to consecrate such a blessed day, 
will congratulate itself on then proclaiming all the 
resplendent glory of your happiness and the public 
joy. But, Madame, we cannot too soon tell Your 
Majesty, in the name of this religion, as holy as it is 
necessary, that it will always regard as the greatest 
of your benefactions the publicity of religious prin- 
ciples and the protection of your example." 



202 MARIE LOUISE. 



When lie had finished his speech, the Archbishop 
walked in front of the Empress-Regent, as she was led 
to the choir in a procession, beneath a canopy sup- 
ported by canons. The procession advanced in the 
following order : the Ushers, the Heralds at Arms, 
Pages, Aides, and Masters of Ceremonies, the Officers 
in Waiting, the Grand Eagles, the High Officers of 
the Empire, the Grand Master of Ceremonies, the 
High Chamberlain, the Princes holding high posi- 
tions, the Regent beneath the canopy, the Lady of 
Honor, the Knight of Honor, the First Equerry, the 
First Almoners, the Marshal, the Duke of Conegliano. 
The Empress on reaching the choir knelt on a 
cushion before the altar, and then took her seat on 
the throne ; and after the Te Beum was sung, she 
went back to the Tuileries as she had come. 

The next day the Moniteur took up its lyric 
trumpet, and thus described the ceremony: "It is 
hard to paint the emotion inspired by this solemn 
rite. It was a spectacle at once magnificent and 
touching : the estates of the Realm, guardians of the 
Empire ; the worthy magistrates, charged with the 
maintenance of order and justice ; the warriors, the 
honor of their country ; the young students, the hope 
of France ; the flower of the vast population of Paris, 
gazed with tenderness at the gentle majesty of virtue 
mounting on the most glorious throne in the world, 
and they with rapture united their prayers with hers, 
to thank the God of battles for the success with 
which he has crowned the noble conceptions ana 



LJJTZEN AND BAUTZEN. 203 

swift efforts of our immortal Emperor. Gratitude 
for his feats, regrets for his absence, prayers for his 
safety, enthusiasm for what had been done in six 
months in the way of repairing losses, the many con- 
spiracies brought to naught in one day, the vision- 
ary schemes destroyed by one victory, the miracles 
wrought by his genius, evoked in every heart a 
multitude of intense, noble, and tender impressions, 
which sought expression in every way. In the sanc- 
tuary, outside of it, and all along the path followed 
by the Empress-Regent, with her noble suite, there 
was assembled a vast throng, and their applause 
attested the love and veneration with which she has 
inspired the whole French people." 

In order to make a favorable impression on the 
nation, in the number of the Moniteur containing 
the description of the Te Deum^ it was announced 
that the Emperor had just proposed a congress at 
Prague to discuss a general peace, and it was added : 
" His Majesty offers to agree to an armistice between 
the different armies, in order to put a stop to the 
shedding of blood. These principles are in harmony 
with the views of Austria." 

Marie Louise was happy because everything seemed 
to betoken a speedy and glorious peace. After her 
return from Notre Dame, she wrote to her father: 
" I come back deeply moved by seeing tlie love with 
which the Emperor inspires the people. Never have 
the French more warmly cheered his name. He is 
victor and peacemaker." 



204 MARIE LOUISE. 



At Vienna the impression made by the battle of 
Liitzen was immense. The Count of Narbonne 
wrote, May 10, 1813, to the Duke of Bassano: 
" However accustomed one may be to the wonders 
accomplished by His Majesty, it is impossible not to 
be struck by a new admiration or new terror on see- 
ing how his genius dispenses with everything, fills 
every void, takes the place of cavalry, renders the 
army experienced, and finds a way to turn everything 
into an instrument of victory. I hastened to inform 
Prince Schwarzenberg, w^ho seemed delighted and not 
at all surprised." 

Napoleon made a victorious entry into Dresden 
where he was rejoined by the King of Saxony, once 
more his faithful ally. The Emperor of Austria sent 
thither General Bubna with this letter : — 

" May 11, 1813. My Bkothek and very Dear 
Son-in-law: I despatch Count Bubna to Your Im- 
perial Majesty at this moment of the greatest impor- 
tance for our Empires. This is the moment when I 
demand your frankest confidence. If Your Majesty 
aids my efforts by a moderation which will establish 
his reign among the most glorious, which will assure 
the happiest future to Your Imperial Majesty, by 
establishing on the firmest basis the dynasty which 
you have founded, the existence of which is closely 
bound up with my own, I shall congratulate myself 
on having contributed to this good end." 

In another letter written the next day. Emperor 
Francis thanked his son-in-law for sending him Avord 
of the victory of Liitzen : — 



LUTZEN AND BAUTZEN. 205 



"My Brother and very Dear Son-in-law : 
I warmly thank Your Imperial Majesty for the atten- 
tion paid me in sending me news of your health after 
the bloody day of Liitzen. You only do justice to 
my eager interest in yourself, by thinking me anxious 
about the dangers to which you expose yourself only 
too much. What you say about the Empress gives 
me great pleasure. When I gave you my daughter, 
I was sure that I gave you an excellent wife who 
was endowed with all the qualities necessary for 
domestic happiness. The development of these 
which renders her worthy to govern the Empire is 
doubtless due to the wise lessons and the example of 
Your Imperial Majesty. It is my heartiest wish that 
my daughter may always contribute to your happi- 
ness, on which, my brother, my own in a great meas- 
ure depends." 

Napoleon thus answered this affectionate letter: — 
"Dresden, May 17, 1813. My Brother and 
very Dear Father-in-law: What Your Majesty 
tells me in your letter about the interest you feel, 
touches me deeply. I deserve it by the genuineness 
of my feeling for you. If Your Majesty is concerned 
about my happiness, may you guard my honor. I 
have decided to die, if need be, at the head of the 
brave French army, rather than to become the laugh- 
ing stock of the English and to allow my enemies to 
triumph. May Your Majesty think of the future! 
Do not destroy the fruit of these years of friendship, 
and do not renew the old plots which will drive 



206 MARIE LOUISE. 



Europe into unending convulsions and wars. Do 
not for petty considerations sacrifice tlie happiness of 
our generation, of your life, and your subjects' real 
interests, — why should I not say those of a part of 
your family which is sincerely attached to you ! May 
Your Majesty never doubt my attachment ! " 

The same day that Napoleon sent this letter to the 
Emperor of Austria, he received warmly General 
Bubna and appeared to enter sincerely into the views 
of the Viennese cabinet. The same day he wrote 
again to Emperor Francis : — 

'' My Brother and very Dear Father-in-laav : 
I have had an interview of several hours with Count 
Bubna. I told him frankly and sincerely what I 
thought. I desire peace more than any one. I con- 
sent to open negotiations for a general peace and to 
the assembling of a congress in some city placed 
between the different belligerent courts. As soon as 
I shall have heard that England, Russia, Prussia, and 
the allies have accepted this proposition, I shall hasten 
to send a Minister Plenipotentiary to this congress, 
and I shall urge my allies to do the same. I shall 
make no objection to the admission to the congress 
of the Spanish insurgents to present their claims. If 
Russia, Prussia, and the other belligerent powers 
wish to treat without England, I also consent to that. 
I shall be ready to send my Minister Plenipotentiary 
as soon as I shall have heard that this proposition is 
accepted, and I shall urge my allies to do the same 
thing as soon as I shall know the date of meeting. 



LiJTZEN AND BAUTZEN. 207 



If, after the opening of the congress, the belligerent 
powers desire to conclude an armistice as was the 
case in Paris with Prince Schwarzenberg, I am ready 
to agree to it. Your Majesty will see from Avhat I 
say, which is what I said six months ago, that I desire 
to avoid the effusion of human blood and to put an 
end to the troubles which afflict so many nations." 

The Emperor Francis trusted in his son-in-law's 
sincerity, and at first thought that the congress 
would be of importance. Metternich, who really 
desired peace, was confident and happy. The Count 
of Narbonne wrote to the Duke of Bassano, May 21, 
1813 : " Since my arrival here I have not seen M. de 
Metternich so satisfied as he appears at this moment. 
' Well,' he said to me, * I hope that the time is come 
when the Emperor Napoleon will be convinced that 
we are neither fools nor traitors. Confess that I was 
right in guessing that he would at last do us justice, 
and see that the simplicity of the plans required 
no explanation or development. His letter to his 
father-in-law, which I have not yet read, though I 
have heard most of its contents, is exactly Avhat I 
should have desired, and at any rate, what we hear 
exceeds all my hopes. Though I have not been to 
Laxenberg, but am going to-morrow with Bubna, I 
can tell you now that His Majesty is delighted, and 
will send him off with instructions which ought to 
please Napoleon.' I repeat it. I have never seen 
him more thoroughly pleased. . . . Day before yes- 
terday at Laxenberg, a man whom I know was speak- 



208 MABIE LOUISE. 



ing of the embarrassment Napoleon must be in, in 
spite of his victories, and was dwelling Avith great 
satisfaction on his dangerous situation. Emperor 
Francis answered with a proverbial phrase of an 
Austrian dialect, ' I am not troubled about him ; he 
will be playing one of his old tricks.' Do you care 
to know the opinion of Russian and Prussian society? 
The same persons who a fortnight ago were offering 
to bet a hundred to fifteen on a war against us, yes- 
terday refused even the odds reversed. An intimate 
friend of Prince Schwarzenberg tells me that he left 
with the greatest possible satisfaction, and accounted 
for this change on the ground of the pleasure he 
must feel at holding the brilliant position of com- 
mander of the Austrian forces with the certainty 
that he would not have to use them." 

Just when Napoleon was talking about an armis- 
tice and peace-making, he had resumed hostilities. 
May 20 and 21 he fought the blo6dy battle of Baut- 
zen, in which he routed the Russians and the Prus- 
sians. The enemy, who had lost eighteen thousand 
men, but had inflicted a loss of twelve thousand on 
the French, retreated in good order, burning their 
material, laying the road waste, and making a stand 
at every stream and gorge. " What ! " exclaimed 
the Emperor, "after such butchery, no result! no 
prisoners ! Those fellows won't leave me a pin ! " 

The Count of Montesquiou was charged to carry 
the Empress the news of the victory of Bautzen. 
She wrote to her father : " I think that I see that 



LUTZEN AND BAUTZEN. 209 

this battle was very important. I can't tell you how 
happy this good news makes me. I was never better 
in my life." 

At Paris, as at Vienna, every one believed in peace. 
The Emperor, it was said on all sides, was to show 
himself moderate, wise, disposed to peace. The 
death of Duroc, Grand Marshal of the Palace, who 
was killed the day after the battle of Bautzen, had 
doubtless filled him with sad and useful thoughts. 
This death was very sudden : a few moments before 
he was struck, two or three steps from his master, 
Duroc sadly said to Caulaincourt, " My friend, do 
you notice the Emperor ? He has just won victories 
after defeats, and now would be the time to take 
advantage of the lessons of misfortune. But, you 
see, he is not changed. He is never satiated with 
fighting. The end of all this cannot fail to be bad." 
In fact, he was right. Napoleon ran up to his dying 
friend. Duroc pressed his hand, raised it to his lips, 
and said with a faint voice, " My whole life has been 
devoted to your service, and all I regret is that I can 
no longer be of use to you." " Duroc," answered the 
Emperor, " there is another life ; there you will await 
me, and we shall meet some day." " Yes, Sire, but 
not for thirty years, Avhen you shall have triumphed 
over your enemies and have fulfilled our country's 
hopes. I have lived as an honest man ; I have noth- 
ing to reproach myself with. I leave a daughter; 
Your Majesty will be a father to her." 

Thiers describes Napoleon leaving the hut where 



210 MARIE LOUISE. 



he had just bidden farewell to his unhappy felloAv- 
soldier, and seating himself on some fascines near 
the outposts : " There he sat, buried in thought, his 
hands on his knees, his eyes wet with tears, scarcely 
hearing the shots of the skirmishers, and not noticing 
the caresses of a dog belonging to a regiment of the 
Guards, which often galloped by the side of his hoi-se, 
and now stood before him, licking his hands. An 
equerry came to rouse him from this revery; he 
arose suddenly, hiding his tears, in order not to be 
seen thus moved. Such is human nature, change- 
able, mysterious in its various aspects, to be judged 
fairly by God alone ! This man thus moved by the 
fate of one wounded man, had caused the mutilation 
of more than eighty thousand men within a month, 
of more than two millions in eighteen years, and was 
yet to cause several hundred thousand more to be 
torn by bullets." 

Alas ! no lesson was of use to the Emperor, not 
even the Russian campaign. It was said that noth- 
ing in the world could inspire him with the ideas of 
moderation and wisdom, which were yet so necessary. 
Austria sincerely desired that he should keep the 
Kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jerome ; the 
Kingdom of Naples for his brother-in-law Murat ; the 
Kingdom of Italy and the French Empire, that vast 
Empire, not only with .the frontier of the Rhine, 
but also Belgium, Holland, Piedmont, Tuscany, the 
Roman States, as French departments for himself. It 
asked of him only to abandon three cities : Hamburg, 



LUTZEN AND BAUTZEN. 211 



Bremen, and Liibeck; and to resign one title, that of 
Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. It was 
through his unwillingness to make this slight con- 
cession that Napoleon ruined France and himself. 

June 4, 1813, the Emperor signed the armistice, 
not to make peace, but to prepare a second campaign. 
He needed still two months to complete his arma- 
ments and to make war even with Austria. The 
fault of this fatal armistice, which saved the then 
desperate forces of the coalitions, and which Napo- 
leon should not have accepted unless he sincerely- 
desired peace, lay in his unwillingness to c.onsent to 
the conditions imposed by the Cabinet of Vienna. 
But the news was received with joy by all Europe, 
except Prussia : Marie Louise fancied that she had 
come to the end of her trials,, and believed that 
France and Austria would remain united forever. 
As soon as she heard of the armistice she wrote to 
her father : " I can truly say that no piece of news 
has ever given me greater pleasure. It dispels my 
anxieties and my fears. I see in it a proof of your 
kindness ; this touches me, and I cannot be suf- 
ficiently grateful. I am sure that the Emperor will 
gladly accept this token of jour friendship. The 
days I spent with you at Prague and at Dresden 
abound with touching memories. It was in tliis 
month, last year, that I had the happiness to see you 
and to assure you by word of mouth of my filial affec- 
tion. I kiss your hand, dear father, and thank you 
for sending me a courier every fortnight." July 7, 



212 MARIE LOUISE. 



the Regent wrote again to her father : '' I can give 
you good news of my husband. All my prayers are 
for a speedy peace. The armistice has already much 
improved my health. You know how anxiety affects 
me." 

Napoleon, when he sent his army into their quar- 
ters, had decreed that a monument should be built 
on the summit of the Alps, with this inscription : 
" Napoleon to the French people, in memory of their 
generous efforts against the coalition of 1813." 

These heroic efforts, this magnanimous struggle, 
these wonders of devotion and courage were to have 
for result the horrors of the invasion. The hopes 
that were felt were but a snare. The Congress of 
Prague was to be but an image ; a ghost of a con- 
gress, and oceans of blood were, alas ! yet to flow. 



XIV. 

THE AKMISTICE. 

nVTAPOLEON returned to Dresden June 10, 1813. 
-L 1 Strange rumors had been circulating among 
the inhabitants of this city since Duroc's remains 
had passed through. Many thought that the Grand 
Marshal's coffin was really the Emperor's, who had 
been killed in the last battle, and whose body, they 
said, was in a room of the castle where one could 
see candles burning all night. When the Imperial 
carriage arrived, they maintained that it was not 
Napoleon whom they saw, but a stuffed figure. 
But when the next day the Emperor appeared on 
horseback in a field outside the city gates, they liad 
to yield to the evidence and to acknowledge that 
the winner of so many battles was still alive. He 
established himself in the Marcolini Palace, a charm- 
ing summer house in the Friedrichstadt suburb. A 
large, beautiful garden, the green fields of the Oster- 
wiese, on the banks of the Elbe, and the most agreea- 
ble exposure rendered this spot in the month of June 
far more attractive than the winter palace where 
lived the King of Saxony. A large number of troops 

213 



214 MARIE LOUISE. 



could be drilled on the river's edge, in Napoleon's 
sight. He arranged his life Avith military precision, 
and decided that in the morning he would hold a 
levee as he had done at the Tuileries ; the middle of 
the day he would devote to drills and reviews; the 
evening to dinners, receptions, and theatrical per- 
formances. 

The actors of the Comedie FrauQaise, among whom 
were Talma, Fleury, Saint Prix, Mademoiselle Geor- 
ges, Mademoiselle Mars, and Mademoiselle Contat, 
were summoned from Paris, and reached Dresden 
June 19, 1813. Napoleon had written to Camba- 
ceres : " It is well people should think that we are 
amusing ourselves here." The first performance took 
place in the Orangery of the Marcolini Palace, which 
had been turned into a little theatre, holding hardly 
more than two hundred persons. There was played 
in the first evening, the G-ageure imprevue and the 
Suite cfun hal masque. Comedies alone were given 
in this small room ; as for the tragedies, they were 
played in the great theatre of the city. It was M. de 
Bausset who acted as manager, in company with M. 
de Turenne. "A remarkable change," he tells us, 
" took place at this time in Napoleon's tastes, he j)re- 
viously having been fond of tragedy. Generally 
speaking, all men feel this effect of advancing years. 
In youth, in the age of passion, the masterpieces of 
tragedy carry us into an unknown conventional 
world. Then everything, to the language and the 
dresses, addresses our senses and our soul in a heroic 



THE ABMISTICE. 215 



way. That is the time when illusions delight and 
overcome us. Later this glow vanishes ; we feel the 
need of drawing nearer to nature and real life ; the 
society, the exact delineation of characters and man- 
ners interests and attracts us much more." 

In 1813 tragedies seemed flat to the Emperor. His 
fate was the greatest of tragedies. Never was there 
a greater, a more thrilling piece, than that in which 
he took the leading part, and had for his support all 
the nations of Europe. Racine and Corneille sunk 
into insignificance before Napoleon. When he had 
reached the decisive point from which he had to rise 
higher or to fall into the abyss, the great actor felt 
that emotion, that combination of hope and anxiety, 
of joy and pain, which distinguishes the supreme 
moment. 

War is the first of games. Battlefields are like 
huge green cloths on Avhich genius and chance hold 
the cards. I have never read this passage from La- 
cordaire's Conferences de Toulouse without thinking 
of Napoleon : " Man has discovered amid the laws of 
numbers and movement combinations Avhich express 
chances but not certainty ; and chance has appeared 
as the sovereign happiness ; for chance responded to 
one of his strongest needs, the dramatic need of his 
nature. He wishes to create for himself an action. 
... An action which moves him by its great inter- 
est, holds him in suspense by a complication indepen- 
dent of his will, and at last saves or fells him by a 
sudden turn. Every other drama is indifferent to 



216 MAUIE LOUISE. 



him. If lie gazes at scenes from Sophocles or Cor- 
neille, he is not the victim or the hero ; he weeps over 
remote misfortunes which art evokes to move him. 
But here he is himself, when he wishes, as he wishes, 
to the extent that he chooses. Chance and cupidity 
together make him the sport of a personal drama, 
both terrifying and joyous, in which hope, fear, joy, 
gloom, follow one another, or rpvther combine almost 
at the same moment, and keep him panting in a fever 
which grows to madness ; for if we speak of the pas- 
sion for drink, we speak of the fury of gambling." 

To an honorable peace, which yet imposed upon his 
pride a few sacrifices, Napoleon, that stubborn and 
relentless gambler, preferred war with all Europe. 
" It was doubtless," said Thiers, " madness for him- 
self, a cruelty for the many victims doomed to perish 
in the battlefield, a sort of treason against France." 
■ After having won fabulous sums, this hardiest of 
players, lucky up to that day, lost suddenly a large 
portion in the Russian campaign. He wished to take 
his revenge, and found his old luck ; his gains were 
considerable : Liitzen and Bautzen. Had he been 
wise he would then have been satisfied ; his losses 
were almost made good. But no I that was not 
enough; he wanted to go on playing. All or 
nothing, was his motto. As foolish a motto as well 
could be ; for Fortune, who is a woman, finally tires 
of her greatest favorites. Once more ! shouted Na- 
poleon. No ! was Fortune's answer ; and by wish- 
ing to regain the whole, he lost everj^thing. 



THE ABMTSTICE. 217 



All Europe had its eyes fixed on Dresden. Except 
perhaps the Prussians, who were aroused to the high- 
est excitement, and thought only of avenging Jena, 
every nation desired peace, and hoped that Napoleon's 
moderation would make this possible. Such, too, was 
Metternich's feeling when he reached the capital of 
Saxony to hold a decisive conference with the winner 
of Liitzen. 

We have no hesitation in saying that we always 
have a little distrust of narrations made from mem- 
ory, especially when they deal with so long an inter- 
view as that which took place at the Marcolini Palace, 
June 26, 1813, between Napoleon and Metternich, as 
is recorded by the Austrian statesman with the minut- 
est detail. Reading the report of this famous con- 
versation, which began at quarter to twelve, and 
lasted till half-past eight in the evening, one would 
imagine that a short-hand writer had been present, 
taking down every word. However wonderful a 
man's memory may be, it is incapable of such a feat. 
Doubtless the account is in the main accurate ; but 
the form cannot be literally given, and many of the sen- 
tences appear to us to belong more to fiction than to his- 
tory. The two principal accounts are those of Prince 
Metternich and of Thiers, who received his informa- 
tion from the Prince ; yet the two reports are far from 
being absolutely identical. Thiers took care to say 
that this famous interview is the most difficult of all 
those in which Napoleon took part to reproduce, from 
the lack of satisfactory documents. He says, speak- 



218 MARIE LOUISE. 



ing of this : " For Napoleon's other interviews, al- 
ready recorded in this history, there existed numerous 
documents, either in our own diplomatic archives, or 
in those of other nations ; but for this one, however, 
inasmuch as Napoleon transmitted no account of it 
to his Ministers, we are without one of the surest 
means of information. He contented himself with 
speaking about it to M. de Bassano, who was later 
the author of different versions that were published 
by writers with whom he was intimate. This memora- 
ble interview would then be nearly lost, if M. de Met- 
ternich had not written it down at great length and 
in full detail, in good season. He kindly favored me 
with a copy of this record, which seemed to me too 
severe to Napoleon, though generally accurate, and I 
have preserved everything which seemed to me incon- 
testable." Evidently such an arbitrary selection can 
oiily approximate the truth. The interview lasted 
more than eight hours. At its close, the two inter- 
locutors who had begun their conversation before 
noon, were in the dark. No one had dared to come 
into the room with a light. It would require almost 
a volume to give a faithful report of so long a conver- 
sation. Prince Metternich confines himself to a few 
pages. Consequently he has suppressed a good deal, 
and what he puts down in his Memoirs, I repeat, does 
not appear to me absolutely authoritative. 

Half an hour after the interview the Minister con- 
tented himself with sending to Emperor Francis a 
short despatch, accompanied by a very brief docu- 



THE ARMISTICE. 219 



ment labelled : " Condensed report of a conversation 
with the Emperor Napoleon." 

"This long interview," he wrote, "has been a 
confused medley of the most curious sort, a series 
of ]Drotestations of friendship mingled with the most 
violent outbreaks. ... 'It depends on Your ]Maj- 
esty,' I said to the Emperor Napoleon, ' to give peace 
to the world, to establish your government on the 
surest foundation, on a feeling of universal gratitude ; 
if Your Majesty lets this opportunity escape, what 
limit can there be to the confusion ? ' The Emperor 
replied that he was willing to make peace, but that 
he would die before he would make a dishonorable 
one. I made answer that no dishonorable proposition 
could ever enter the Emperor Francis's calculations. 
'Well I What do you mean by a peace ?' the Emperor 
interrupted. 'What are your conditions? Do you 
wish to despoil me ? Do 3^ou want Italy, Brabant, 
Lorraine ? I shall not give up an incli of territory ; 
I will make peace on the basis of statu quo ante 
helium, I will even give Russia a part of the Duchy 
of Warsaw; I will give you nothing, because you 
have not beaten me ; I will give nothing to Prussia, 
because she has played me false. If you want West- 
ern Calicia, if Prussia wants part of her former 
possessions, that may be arranged; but there must 
be some compensations. In that case you will have 
to indemnify my allies. The conquest of lllyria cost 
me three hundred thousand men; if you want to 
have it, you must give an equal number of men.' 



220 MARIE LOUISE. 



After this first outbreak, I replied : ' I am not called 
uj^on to discuss here the conditions of future peace, 
but simply to insist on the speediest opening of nego- 
tiations through Austria, or else on the Emperor's 
refusal to negotiate through its mediation. Let the 
negotiators meet, and nothing can stand in the way 
of a discussion of the conditions of peace ; in this 
important juncture Austria will perform its duty as 
mediator with absolute impartiality.' " 

This document, written half an hour after the 
interview, bears the ear-mark of indisputable authen- 
ticity. It is a summary in which, to our thinking, 
the respective situation of the interlocutors is clearly 
and exactly expressed. As for the fuller report in 
Prince Metternich's Memoirs, it is very impressive 
on account of its dramatic character ; but on certain 
points it seems that it should be accepted with re- 
serve. Is it, for example, probable, that Napoleon, 
who up to that time had reason only to praise Marie 
Louise, and who openly congratulated himself on the 
way she performed her duties as Regent, should have 
said to Metternich : " Three times I have re-established 
the Emperor Francis on his throne ; I promised to 
remain at peace with him as long as I lived; I married 
his daughter. I said to myself then : ' You are doing 
a foolish thing ' ; but it's done ; I am sorry for it 
now " ? Is it likely that Napoleon would have said 
a second time : " Yes, I did a very stupid thing in 
marrying the Archduchess " ; and that Metternich 
should have answered : " Since Your Majesty desires 



THE ABMISTICE. 221 



to know my opinion, I will tell him very frankly that 
Napoleon the Conqueror made a blunder " ? 

Is it probable that the Emperor, returning for the 
third time to the expression of the same regret, 
should again say : " Yes, everything confirms me in 
the opinion that I committed an unpardonable blun- 
der ; by marrying the Archduchess I hoped to unite 
the present and the past, Gothic prejudices, and the 
institutions of my time ; I made a mistake, and I now 
see all the consequences of my error; it may cost 
me my throne, but I shall bury the world beneath 
its ruins " ? 

Is it probable that Napoleon could have carried his 
boasting so far as to say : " How many allies are 
you ? Four, five, six, tAventy ? The more numerous 
you are, the calmer I shall be " ? Is it probable that 
he should have used this figure : " I have groAvn up 
on battlefields, and a man like me cares little for the 
life of a million men. . . . The French can't com- 
plain of me ; to spare them I sacrificed the Germans 
and the Poles I lost three hundred thousand men 
in the Russian campaign, but in that number there 
were not more than thirty thousand Frenchmen " ? 

Prince Metternich thus describes the end of the 
interview : " It was dark. No one had dared to enter 
the room. Not a moment of silence interrupted the 
hot discussion. Six different times my words were 
equivalent to a declaration of war. . . • When 
Napoleon dismissed me, he had become calm and 
gentle. I could not see his face. He went with me 



222 MABIE LOUISE. 



to the door of the anteroom ; as he laid his hand on 
the door-knob, he said to me : 

" ' We shall meet again, I hope.' 

" 'I am at your orders. Sire,' I replied; *but I have 
no hope of attaining the object of my mission.' 

" ' Well,' resumed Napoleon, laying his hand on 
my shoulder, ' do you know what will happen ? You 
will not make war against me.' 

" ' You are a ruined man, Sire,' I exclaimed warmly ; 
' I had a presentiment of it when I came here; now 
I am sure of it.' " 

All this seems to us very improbable. On the 
morrow of Liitzen and Bautzen, no one spoke in that 
way to Napoleon. We are inclined to think that 
Metternich rather expressed regret. 

The Baron of Bausset says in his Memoirs that 
during the whole interview the King of Saxony and 
the King of Naples waited to know the result, in 
either the anteroom or the garden. " When he left," 
he says, " M. de Metternich seemed to me excited. 
He waited silently at the palace door until the 
Emperor, who had left the room at the same time 
with him, had got on his horse. I silently studied 
M. de Metternich's face, as I had long known him ; 
he took my hand mechanically, pressed it warmly, 
and held it for a few minutes without saying a word. 
This silent, almost convulsive parting, troubled me, 
and seemed to express all the fate of the Empire." 

June 30 Metternich again saw Napoleon and found 
him perfectly serene. What the Emperor especially 



THE ARMISTICE. 223 



desired was the prolongation of the armistice, in 
order to complete his armaments. He was amiable, 
familiar, courteous, with the Austrian Minister. '' So 
you insist," he said to him, laughing, " on threatening 
us ? " The Convention was signed without difficulty, 
and Metternich, who was treated with the utmost 
courtesy, returned to the Emperor Francis. At 
Prague he saw the Count of Narbonne, and frankly 
exposed the situation to him. " The limit of August 
10 once reached, there will not be a word said about 
peace, and war will be declared. We shall not be 
neutral ; the Emperor Napoleon need not flatter him- 
self. ... I give you my word and my Sovereign's 
that we have made no engagements with any one. 
But I also give you my word that at midnight of 
August 10 we shall have some with every one except 
you, and that on the morning of the 17th you will 
have three hundred thousand Austrians more on your 
hands. It is not lightly, not without pain, for he is 
a father and he loves liis daughter, that the Emperor 
has formed this resolution ; but he owes it to his 
people, to himself, to Europe, to restore tranquillity, 
since he has the power, and since, besides, the only 
alternative is some day in the future to fall beneath 
your blows, in a condition of dependency worse than 
that into which you have put Prussia. Don't come 
telling us after the event that we have deceived you. 
Up to midnight, August 10, everything is possible, 
even at the last hour; the 10th of August passed, 
not a day's, not a moment's respite ; war, war with 
every one, even with us ! " 



224 MARIE LOUISE. 



In 1808, at Erfurt, Napoleon was conversing with 
Goetlie. The hero of Austerlitz and the author of 
Faust discussed ancient tragedy and the notion of 
fate. "What have we to do with fatality nowa- 
days?" Napoleon broke out; "fatality is politics." 
Yes, it is politics, that, at certain, solemn, historical 
moments, — in 1813, in 1870, for example, — with a 
certain fascination, leads sovereigns to an abyss which 
they see but cannot avoid. Presentiments, flashes of 
wisdom light up here and there the blackness of the 
night into which they have voluntarily plunged ; but 
they are sure to deaden that importunate light with 
their own hands, and to march with bowed head, 
amid the gloom, towards the gulf. 



XV. 

MAYENCE. 

BEFORE resuming the conflict, Napoleon wished 
to take advantage of the armistice to spend a 
few days with Marie Louise, and he asked her to join 
him at Mayence. He still loved her sincerely, and 
thought that she might be of some use to him. He 
fancied that the regard with which he treated her 
might make a good impression in Vienna, and 
although he knew that the Prague Congress would 
be barren of result, he wanted peace to be thought 
probable, and he pretended that he himself hoped 
for it. To the Archchancellor he wrote this letter, to 
arrange for the Empress's journey : — 

" Dresden, July 16, 1813. My Cousin: This letter 
leaves the 16th, and will reach you on the 20th. I 
wish the Empress to leave on the 22d, so that she 
may be at Mayence on the 24th. She will bring the 
' Duchess of Montebello, two ladies in waiting, two 
Eastern women, two negresses, a Prefect of the Pal- 
ace, two chamberlains, two equerries, of whom one 
shall start twenty-four hours in advance for Metz, so 
that they may divide the journey between them ; four 

225 



226 MABIE LOUISE. 



pages, to be distributed along the way, in order to 
make the trip less fatiguing for the young fellows ; 
her private secretary, if he is well, and her physician. 
Moreover, she will bring servants and a dinner ser- 
vice so that her table may be well served ; for I shall 
not take any one with me, and it is possible that 
several German Kings and Princes may call on her. 
Still she need not bring the silver-gilt service. 
Count Caffarelli will accompany the Empress to look 
after the escorts. The Empress will spend the first 
night at Chalons, at the Prefecture ; the second at 
Metz, at the Prefecture ; the third at Mayence. Her 
trip will be announced in these three cities so that 
due honors may be paid her. There will be four car- 
riages in the first set, four in the second, four in the 
third: twelve carriages in all. So far as possible, 
the military commandant will supply escorts. The 
gens d'armes along the route will be under arms, in 
full uniform. All the prescribed ceremonial will be 
observed. The general commanding each division 
will accompany her in the territory of his division. 

" The day of the Empress's departure you will have 
inserted in the Moniteur an article running thus : 
' Her Majesty the Empress, Queen, and Regent, has 
left to spend a week at Mayence, in the hope of 
meeting His Majesty the Emperor there. Her Maj- 
esty will sleep the 22d at Chalons, the 23d at Metz, 
and the 24th at Mayence. Her Majesty will return 
early in August.' 

"You will send me word by telegraph when the 



MAYENCE. 227 



Empress leaves Saint Cloud and when she is to reach 
Mayence ; I shall arrange my departure accordingly. 
If any Ministers have anything important to say to 
me, and desire to come to confer with me, they can 
avail themselves of my stay at Mayence and visit me 
between July 24 and August 1. And now I pray 
God to have you in his holy keeping." 

Marie Louise started from Saint Cloud July 23, 
and slept at Chalons and at Metz, where she received 
the principal authorities, and reached Mayence the 
26th, at four in the morning, in wretched weather. 
She feared that the Emperor might have got there 
before her ; but he did not arrive till the same day, at 
eleven in the evening. He was in good health. His 
complexion was brightened and sunburnt by the cam- 
paign. He embraced his wife tenderly and expressed 
the utmost confidence in the future. The next morn- 
ing he watched the troops parade, and started the squad- 
rons and battalions which were passing the Rhine to join 
the army. The Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess 
of Baden, the Prince Primate, the Prince of Nassau, 
the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, came to pay 
their court. 

The Prefect of Mayence, the chief town of the 
department of Mont Tonnerre, happened to be a 
former member of the Convention, and of the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety, by name Jean Bon Saint 
Andr^. He was a tireless worker, an admirable 
administrator, of simple tastes and austere appearance, 
with the bearing and tastes of a peasant of the Dan- 



228 MARIE LOUISE. 



ube ; in a word, the old Revolutionary had preserved 
the Republican airs of his youth after he had become 
an Imperial functionary. Count Beugnot, who at 
that time governed the Grand Duchy of Berg, as 
Minister of the Emperor, and who had come from 
Diisseldorf to Mayence to pay his respects to his 
sovereign, has drawn in his Memoirs a very curious 
portrait of the former member of the Convention, 
then a Prefect of the Empire, who, dressed partly in 
uniform, partly, including his cravat, in black, greatly 
disturbed the gilded band of courtiers. He replied 
to their remarks somewhat as follows : " Indeed, I 
greatly admire your courage in busying yourself 
about my dress and the color of my stockings, when 
I am going to dine with the Emperor and Empress. 
You don't express everything; you are scandalized 
at seeing me invited to such a dinner, and as soon as 
I have turned my back you will say : ' In fact, its in- 
conceivable that the Emperor should invite to dine 
with the Empress, the new Empress, a member of 
the Convention, a "voter," a colleague of Robespierre 
on the Committee of Public Safety, who is rank with 
Jacobinism.' " 

" Oh ! M. Jean Bon, how can you put such stu- 
pidity into our mouths ! We respect you too much 
to allow ourselves — " 

" Not at all, gentlemen ; that is not stupidity, but 
the pure truth. I will confess that Europe had then 
conspired against France, as it has to-day. It had 
drawn an iron girdle about us. Treachery had 



MATENCE. 229 



already surrendered some important cities, and it was 
spreading. Well! the Kings were beaten. We re- 
covered our own territory and carried into theirs the 
invasion which they had begun against us. We con- 
quered Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine which 
we joined then to ourselves, although at the begin- 
ning of the war they forbade the division. We ex- 
tended our preponderance and compelled those same 
Kings to sue for peace. Do you know what govern- 
ment secured and prepared those results ? A govern- 
ment consisting of members of the Convention, of 
furious Jacobins, wearing red caps, rough woollen, 
and sabots, living on coarse bread and bad beer, who 
flung themselves on mattresses laid on the floor of 
the place where they held their meetings when they 
were worn out by extreme fatigue and long w^atch- 
ings. Those were the men who saved France. I 
was one of them, gentlemen ; and here, as well as 
in the Emperor's apartments which I am about to 
enter, I am proud of it. . . . Besides, let us wait 
a little. Fortune is fickle ; she has raised France 
very high ; sooner or later, who knows, she may cast 
her down as low as she was in 1793. Then we shall 
see if she will be saved by soothing measures, and 
what will be the good of decorations, embroideries, 
feathers, and especially white silk stockings." 

After thus speaking to the courtiers, Jean Bon 
dined with Napoleon and Marie Louise. The Em- 
peror's brow was dark and he seemed buried in 
thought. He ate but little. Two or three times he 



230 MARIE LOUISE. 



spoke to the Prince of Nassau without listening to 
his answers, so that the two seemed to be at cross 
purposes. The Empress had an opportunity to utter 
a few words, which she did very modestly. 

Count Beugnot, who was one of the guests, says that 
before the dinner the Emperor had wished to take a 
little sail on the Rhine, to try a little boat which the 
Prince of Nassau had just given him. He went from 
the Palace of the Teutonic Order to the river bank, 
and got into the boat with the Prince of Nassau, M. 
Jean Bon Saint Andre, M. Beugnot, two aides, an 
adjutant of the Palace, and his Mameluke Rustan. 
Through a field-glass he examined a fine vineyard on 
the right bank of the Rhine, in the middle of which 
rose the Castle of Biberich. While the Emperor 
stood at one side of the boat, near the edge, lost in 
contemplation, Jean Bon Saint Andr^ said to Count 
Beugnot : " What a singular thing ! The fate of the 
world hangs on a single kick, more or less." "In 
Heaven's name, hush ! " exclaimed Count Beugnot in 
terror. " Don't distress yourself," the old member of 
the Convention went on, "resolute men are rare." 
When the sail was over, the dialogue between the 
administrator of the Grand Duchy of Berg and the 
Prefect of Mayence continued on the steps of the 
grand staircase of the Palace of the Teutonic Order : 
" Do you know that you gave me a real scare ? " 
" Of course I know it. I am surprised you recovered 
the use of your legs enough to walk; but you can 
be sure that we shall lament with tears of blood 



MAYENCE. 231 



that this trip to-day was not his last." " You are a 
madman ! " " And you, saving the respect I owe 
Your Excellency, are a fool ! " 

Meanwhile, Napoleon appeared even more formid- 
able. There was no breach of order throughout his 
immense Empire. From Rome to Hamburg perfect 
obedience prevailed. The young army, as well as 
the Old Guard, displayed enthusiastic bravery. The 
Princes of the Confederation of the Rhine conducted 
themselves like faithful vassals. It was not known 
that the Emperor of Austria intended to abandon 
the French alliance, and no one imagined that he 
was working to overthrow his daughter's throne. It 
was said that Napoleon's power would suffer some 
slight diminution, but no one believed that he would 
be ruined. The Bourbons were never mentioned. 
They were almost unknown in France, and kindled 
sympathy at the courts of Vienna, Berlin, or Saint 
Petersburg. At Mayence, the hero of Liitzen and 
Bautzen received as much homage as in his most 
brilliant days. The Imperial star still shone in sight 
of every one, like a setting sun. 

Marie Louise, who more than anything dreaded a 
rupture between her husband and her father, had 
moments of uneasiness. Napoleon did his best to 
reassure her, and talked continually of peace, even 
when he was perfectly determined on war. He was 
much touched by the attachment with which he 
seemed to inspire the daughter of the Ctesars of Ger- 
many, and he expressed the utmost regard for her, 



232 MABIE LOUISE. 



as much from motives of policy as from affection ; 
for he wished to encourage the Emperor Francis to 
remain a good father, by remaining a good husband. 
The Empress, ever tranquil and majestic, gave no 
outward sign of her gloomy forebodings, and drove 
out every day in a barouche through the country 
about Mayence. The weather had become very fine, 
and the clear sky made a marked contrast with the 
vain agitations of men. 

August 1 Napoleon left Mayence after bidding 
farewell to Marie Louise, whom he kissed in presence 
of the Avhole court. This time she could not control 
her emotion, and burst into tears. August 4, after 
stopping at Wiirzburg, Bamberg, and Bayreuth, to 
hold reviews, he was back in Dresden, more confi- 
dent, more eager for war than ever. In vain had 
Caulaincourt written to him: "Every sacrifice now 
made in behalf of peace will render you. Sire, more 
powerful than your victories have done, and you will 
be the idol of your people." He remained deaf to 
the words of his most faithful servants, and appeared 
more determined than ever to risk everything on a 
single throw. 

As for the Empress, she left Mayence August 2, 
and embarked upon the Rhine in the yacht which the 
Prince of Nassau had put at her disposition. Her 
suite consisted of the Duchess of Montebello, the 
Count of Beauharnais, Mesdames de Lauriston and 
de Talhonet, General Caffarelli, two chamberlains, a 
Prefect of the Palace, and the Baron of Meneval. 



MAYENCE. 233 



Between Mayence and Cologne she admired the banks 
of the picturesque and poetic river, with its fertile 
fields, its cliffs, and its castles of the Middle Ages. 
At Coblenz, where she arrived August 3, she was 
greeted by the ringing of bells, artillery salutes, 
and flourishes of trumj)ets ; and she appeared much 
touched by this brilliant reception, which she had 
not expected. At Cologne she left the yacht, and 
continued her journey by post. August 5 she was 
at Aix-la-Chapelle, where she visited the cathedral. 
Then she passed through Liege, Namur, Soissons, 
Compi^gne. August 9, at seven in the evening, she 
was back at Saint Cloud, where she met her son as 
she alighted from her carriage, and she pressed him 
tenderly in her arms. 



XVI. 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 



WHEN Marie Louise had returned to Saint 
Cloud and was no longer within reach of 
her husband's cheering words, she became profoundly 
melancholy. Her only consolation was the sight of 
her son, a superb boy, whose strength and intelligence 
were developing most remarkably. The Queen of 
Naples had made him a present of a little gilded car- 
riage, to which the skilful riding-master Franconi had 
harnessed two trained sheep, like horses. Whenever 
the infant King was seen driving in this pretty car- 
riage, under the venerable trees in the gardens of 
Saint Cloud, he inspired tender admiration. Marie 
Louise was proud of her son; but the more she 
loved him, the more anxious she felt as to the lot 
reserved for this child whose cradle had been saluted 
with so much applause and homage. The letters she 
wrote at that time to the Emperor Francis were 
marked by a melancholy akin to discouragement. 
" I am in a painful uncertainty about the issue of 
the negotiations," she wrote to him, August 12, 1813. 
" Heaven grant that there may be no war ! The 
234 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 235 



thought of it horribly alarms me. If war breaks 
out, I hope you will not be mixed up in it, for I can- 
not bear to think of its consequences. I found the 
Emperor very well at Mayence. He has gained 
flesh. Unfortunately I saw him for only six days. 
On my return I found my son very well and very 
gay. He already talks, and is very amiable. The 
Emperor sends me to Cherbourg for the inauguration 
of the basin." 

What the Empress most feared, a war between her 
father and her husband, became imminent. The 
Count of Narbonne's prophecies came true. He had 
written : " No defection is more certain than one that 
is involuntary ; which is not determined some morning 
out of calculation or passion, but which grows from 
day to day. . . . The Emperor Napoleon counts too 
much on family ties. The titles of son-in-law and 
father-in-law seem to him like indissoluble bonds. It 
is true that, according to an old diplomatic saying, 
Austria re-establishes itself by marriages ; but there 
is also truth in the Italian proverb, ' When the storm 
is over, the saint is laughed at.' " 

Throughout Austria the war-feeling was at it« 
heiffht. War was demanded as a means of recover- 
ing lost fame. Prince Schwarzenberg, who was ap- 
pointed Commander-in-Chief, tried to wipe out the 
memory of his former zeal for the French alliance. 
The last convention had prolonged the armistice until 
the 10th of August, Avith a delay of six days between 
the denunciation of the armistice and the renewal of 



236 MABIE LOUISE. 



hostilities. Consequently the war would be resumed 
August 17, unless the Prague Congress should estab- 
lish immediate peace. After much backing and 
filling, and many delays, which were ascribed to 
Napoleon, the Congress at last met, July 29 ; France 
was represented by the Duke of Vicenza and the 
Count of Narbonne ; Austria by Metternich ; Russia 
by M. d'Anstett; Prussia by the Baron von Hum- 
boldt. Their deliberations were a mere matter of 
form. 

The Duke of Bassano, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
had written to the Count of Narbonne ; '* I send you 
more powers than power; you will have your hands 
tied, but your legs and mouth free for walking and 
dining." Napoleon's infatuation had reached such a 
height that he imagined that he could not make any 
concession to Austria. The Duke of Bassano had 
written to the Duke of Vicenza, July 21 : " The Em- 
peror's intention is to negotiate with Russia and to 
make a glorious peace for that power ; a peace that 
shall punish Austria for her bad faith in breaking 
the alliance of 1812, by depriving her of her influence 
in Europe, and shall also draw Russia and France 
nearer together. The Emperor intends to arrange 
matters in a way that will not force him some day 
to disentangle complications with Russia. If Rus- 
sia secures an advantageous peace, she will have 
purchased it by the devastation of her provinces, by 
the loss of her capital, and by two years of terrible 
warfare, misfortunes from which she will long suffer. 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 237 



Austria, on the other hand, has made no sacrifices, 
and has deserved nothing. If she derives any profit 
from her present intrigues, she would foster others in 
order to obtain new advantages. The aims of her 
demands on France are infinite. One concession 
would encourage her to urge another. It is hence 
for the interest of France that she do not acquire a 
single village." 

The Duke of Vicenza, a clear-sighted man, received 
these imprudent instructions with regret. On his 
arrival at Prague, he wrote to the Minister, July 28 : 
" We are already on a volcano ; the minutes are num- 
bered; our delays have produced a bad impression. 
Everything I hear makes me doubly regret that the 
Emperor should have bound your hands and mine 
more tightly than he promised." Metternich contin- 
ually said to the French plenipotentiaries that up to 
August 10 matters were not desperate, but that after 
that date, if peace was not concluded, Austria's mission 
as a mediatorial power would be at an end. This 
date of August 10 was to be fatal to the Empire, as 
it had been twenty-one years before to royalty. 

August 3, Metternich said to the Duke of Vicenza : 
" There can no longer be any doubt about your Sov- 
ereign's intentions. The Emperor Napoleon has 
merely tried to gain time. The armistice is entirely 
to his advantage ; it is injurious to the allies. They 
sincerely desire peace, and a moderate peace ; it would 
be made if the Emperor, your master, had wished it. 
Probably it is now too late." 



238 MABIE LOUISE. 



The same day Napoleon sent from Dresden to the 
Duke of Vicenza a despatch, all of which he dictated 
himself ; in it he said : " The Emperor commands 
you, by an extra-ministerial channel, to do as follows, 
without the knowledge of the Count of Narbonne. 
This step has for its object to ascertain in what way 
Austria judges that peace can be made, and whether, 
in case the Emperor adheres to his propositions, Aus- 
tria would make common cause with us, or would 
remain neutral. There is no question of negotiations, 
but of an absolutely confidential overture, which 
rests on such obvious feelings that it would be a 
renunciation of the aim which Austria says that she 
desires, if she should not answer without reserve. 
This step will always remain secret, and as soon as 
the Emperor Napoleon shall be certain of Austria's 
last word, he will give instructions in consequence 
to his plenipotentiaries. The simplicity of this step 
carries with it the mark of the man who makes it, 
and of his firmness. M. de Metternich, then, must 
see that it is necessary for him to set his lowest 
terms, and propose nothing dishonorable for the Em- 
peror Napoleon. M. de Metternich will probably 
require twenty-four hours ; twenty-four hours will be 
granted him, and the conditions will be written down 
at his dictation. Our answer will be given in three 
days, and thereby all the embarrassments of the Con- 
gress and all the difficulties that beset it will be dis- 
pelled. The Emperor Napoleon is more thoroughly 
prepared for war than he can ever expect to be ; but 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 239 



inasmuch as he is consistent in his policy, before 
abandoning his alliance with Austria and destroying 
a system which the two powers had regarded as the 
foundation of their common security, which they 
liked to establish on personal feelings, he desires tliis 
question answered, and to weigh carefully the advan- 
tages and disadvantages. Before you make this over- 
ture, you will ask M. de Metternich not to repeat to 
the Emperor of Austria what you may say, and not 
to transmit it to any of the allied powers. Likewise 
you will give your word that everything said in tliis 
interview will be kept profoundly secret by yourself." 

Thus, M. de Narbonne himself, this favorite Ambas- 
sador, this trusted agent, was not admitted to this 
secret. This was a singular diplomacy by which a 
sovereign kept from his own plenipotentiary the 
most important point of the negotiations. 

August 6 the Duke of Vicenza had a very secret 
interview with Metternich, in which he informed him 
of Napoleon's confidential overtures. The Austrian 
Minister appeared much surprised. He thought the 
step was taken very late, and declared once more that 
the negotiations could not be prolonged beyond Au- 
gust 10, the date irrevocably fixed. Nevertheless, he 
went to Brandeiss where the Emperor Francis was, 
to receive his sovereign's orders. After some hes- 
itation the Emperor consented to dictate to his Min- 
ister a despatch which was Austria's final word, its 
ultimatum. The conditions which it set for peace 
were as follows : " Dissolution of the Duchy of War- 



240 MABIE LOUISE. 



saw, wliicli shall be divided between Russia, Austria, 
and Prussia. Dantzic shall be restored to Prussia. 
Restoration of Hamburg and Liibeck to their con- 
ditions as free Hanseatic cities, and a later arrange- 
ment, connected with the general peace, regarding 
the other parts of the 32d Military Division. The 
renunciation of the Protectorate of the Confederation 
of the Rhine, so that the independence of the reign- 
ing sovereigns of Germany shall be placed under 
the guaranty of the great powers. Reconstruction 
of Prussia, with a suitable frontier on the Elbe. 
Cession of the Illyrian provinces to Austria. Re- 
ciprocal guaranty of the state of things established 
by the treaty of peace." 

This ultimatum had as corollary the following lines 
dictated by the Emperor Francis to his Minister : 
" I expect a yes or no in the course of the 10th. I 
am determined to declare on the 11th, as will be done 
by Russia and Prussia, that the Congress is dissolved, 
and then I shall not take into account these condi- 
tions, which shall be decided by war." 

The Austrian ultimatum, which was communicated 
to the Duke of Vicenza August 8, was not placed 
before Napoleon until three o'clock in the afternoon of 
the 9th. At the same time the Emperor received a 
letter, in which the Duke of Vicenza said to him: 
" Your Majesty will observe in the ultimatum of the 
Emperor of Austria a few sacrifices of his pride ; but 
France is not asked to make any real ones ; no diminu- 
tion of your real glory is demanded. I pray you, Sire, 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 241 



to put into the scales with peace all the chances of war. 
Consider the general irritation, the state in which 
Germany will be as soon as Austria shall have spoken ; 
the lassitude of France, its noble devotion, and its sac- 
rifices after the Russian disasters; listen to all the 
prayers uttered in France for peace ; to those of your 
devoted servants, true Frenchmen, who, like me, are 
forced to tell you that it is necessary to allay the 
feverishness of Europe, to loosen this coalition by 
peace ; and, whatever may be your projects, to await 
in the future what the greatest successes cannot give 
you to-day. Such a peace, made after our army has 
recovered its honor in several battles, can only be an 
honorable one. After so much time has been lost, 
the hours are numbered ; one of the objects of this 
letter is to remind Your Majesty of this. There are 
too many passions urging war to allow of any delay 
in making peace. I repeat it, because such is my 
strong conviction ; may Your Majesty thus decide ; 
and be sure that in speaking to him as I do, I think 
less of the honor of signing it, than of the happiness 
of my country, and of that which Your Majesty will 
find in the certainty of having done something wise 
in policy, and worthy of his great character." 

Austria left Napoleon only forty-eight houi-s to 
receive its ultimatum, to consider it, and to decide. 
If he accepted, it had to be done at once, and he had 
no opportunity to alter a single word. At the most, 
he had still time enough to accept everything and to 
send word to his plenipotentiaries. But he made the 



242 MABIE LOUISE. 



mistake of supposing, in spite of what Metternicli 
said, that August 10 was not an absolutely final 
date, and that negotiations might be still prolonged 
to the 17th, the day set for the resumption of hostil- 
ities. Hence he thought it possible to send a prop- 
osition of his own to Prague. According to this, 
Dantzic was to become a free city; the King of 
Saxony be indemnified by territorial concessions for 
the loss of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw; Austria 
should acquire Illyria, but neither Istria nor Trieste ; 
the King of Denmark should have the integrity of 
his states guaranteed ; Napoleon was to continue to 
hold the Hanseatic cities and the Protectorate of the 
Confederation of the Rhine. The day and night of 
August 9 were devoted to the preparation and draw- 
ing up of this document which could not be sent off 
till too late, that is to say till the night of August 
10. 

This decisive and fatal 10th of August was a 
holiday. In all Germany from the North Sea to the 
frontiers of Bohemia, the French army was noisily 
celebrating the Emperor's birthday a few days in 
advance. Napoleon having preferred the earlier date, 
the 10th, instead of the 15th, in view of the resump- 
tion of hostilities on the 17th, lest the rejoicings 
should be too near the approaching bloodshed. The 
15th would be taken up with thoughts of battles ; 
the 10th was to be devoted to the enjoyment of life, 
— that life which so many brave men were soon to 
lose. Away with gloomy forebodings ! Everything 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 243 



was alive with joy and merry-making. In every 
camp there were banquets in honor of Napoleon, and 
paid for by him. He dined with the marshals ; the 
soldiers feasted together at tables set in the open 
air. They pledged France and the Emperor, di-ink- 
ing their glasses merrily, forgetful of dangers past, 
indifferent to those before them. Never had the 
soldiers been more confident of their invincibility. 
The conscripts who had left their villages but a few 
weeks before, already had the air of veterans. At 
Hamburg, Marshal Davout gave a dinner at which 
the Prince of Hesse, Commander-in-Chief of the 
Danish troops, was present, and in the evening there 
were fire-works in the Alster basin. 

While the whole army was revelling, one brave 
soldier, a skilled diplomatist and great patriot. 
General Caulaincourt, the Duke of Vicenza, that 
sturdy hero who had never known fear on any battle- 
field, was trembling with anxiety. He had told the 
truth to his master with the noblest frankness. See- 
ing the gulf open before him, he awaited with pain- 
ful anxiety the despatch which might yet save 
everything. But the hours passed and nothing came. 
The day was terrible, but the night was still worse. 
Nine o'clock, ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, not a word ! 
The fatal hour drew near. The old clocks of 
Prap'ue struck twelve. Metternich had not deceived 
Napoleon ; he had always told him that at midnight 
the die would be cast. The Russians and Prussians 
were sighing for that hour which in their thought 



244 MARIE LOUISE. 



would be that of the deliverance of Europe. Up to 
the last minute they had feared a reconciliation be- 
tween the son-in-law and the father-in-law. They 
knew that without Austria they were powerless, and 
with Austria, capable of everything. It struck mid- 
night : they did not lose a minute in announcing the 
rupture of the armistice. Fires, the agreed signals, 
were lit on mountains between Prague and Trachen- 
berg. The Russian army, under the command of 
Barclay de Tolly, broke camp and entered Bohemia. 

It was not till the morning of August 11 that the 
Duke of Vicenza was able to communicate to Metter- 
nich Napoleon's propositions. This tardy step was 
without success, although the Austrian Minister gave 
a faint hope that there might be a direct arrangement 
with the Emperor Alexander who was to be at Prague 
August 15. The Duke of Vicenza, uncertain whether 
he ought to stay or leave, asked on the 11th for new 
instructions, and particularly for full powers. He 
declared, however, that Austria would not yield in 
the matter of Trieste or the Hanseatic cities, or of 
the territorial indemnity asked for Saxony. He 
wrote on the 12th that if the Emperor Napoleon 
would not insist on these three points, matters were 
not yet desperate. The Emperor received this de- 
spatch on the 13th, and on the same day the Duke of 
Bassano wrote at his dictation to the Duke of Vicenza : 
" We refuse Trieste, because Trieste is Istria, and 
for us Istria does not mean Istria but Venice. It is 
a matter of honor for France to require suitable 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 245 



indemnities for the King of Saxony. We demand 
that nothing shall be said about Hamburg or Liibeck. 
You may request communication to M. de Metternich 
of His Majesty's ultimatum. We send you the nec- 
essary powers for signing everything within two 
hours. ... As soon as you are sure that there 
remains no possibility of agreement, you will depart 
at once ; His Majesty is unwilling that you should 
remain to grace the Emperor Alexander's triumph 
at Prague. You will leave the city before his arrival. 
Moreover, His Majesty is determined not to lend his 
aid to the prolongation of the armistice, and he is 
quite as anxious for war as is Austria. He desires 
that you start from the principle that we are not 
sorry that this power should be in a state of war with 
us. The secret joy that His Majesty feels in a situa- 
tion worthy of his genius, has not escaped the per- 
ception of M. de Bubna. He knows that we have 
on our side the advantage given by possessing all the 
pieces on the board. He recognizes, with all Europe, 
that we have all the power of genius. His Majesty, 
trusting in Providence, sees the vast designs it en- 
trusts to him. He sees about him only grounds for 
confidence." 

On the receipt of this despatch, monumental proof 
of that spirit of imprudence and error of which the 
poet speaks, the Duke of Vicenza was seized with 
deep melancholy. He wrote at once to the Duke 
of Bassano : " I confess that I had hoped for greater 
freedom; when one desires anything, one must desire 



246 3fAIiIE LOUISE. 



also the means of doing it ; I hope for another 
despatch to-night; if I have no other reason to go 
to ]\I. de Metternich I have but faint hopes ; I shall 
have all the inconvenience, and yet shall not be at 
fault. How many tears to-morrow may wipe away 
or call forth ! " 

The Duke of Vicenza, whose patriotic anguish was 
at its height, wished to make one final appeal to his 
master, and in the night of August 15 he wrote to 
him this eloquent letter : ^' Weigh well in the balance, 
Sire, the real interests of France, those of your 
djaiasty, those finally of a wise policy. Throw these 
into the same scales with the glory of war and its 
chances, and Your Majesty will make peace. Deign to 
pei-suade yourself. Sire, that this war is not like those 
that have preceded it. Every one has seen the faults, 
and, what is more, has calculated the risks of the 
course he has taken. Austria has not prepared for 
the removal of its archives from Vienna, and made 
other preparations, without foreseeing reverses in 
this o^eneral conflict. Russia runs no further risk, 
fighting as she does in the territory of others. Prus- 
sia is engaged in a life or death struggle in spite of 
herself. As for Germany, it will follow Austria, 
which feels only too well that its cause will be with- 
out appeal if the signal is once given. England 
defends herself in Spain ; but when the first cannon 
is fired, she will command everywhere, and Your 
Majesty will not be everywhere. If your armies 
meet with the slightest defeat, if even the battles, 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 247 



like the last ones, are without great results, who can 
foresee the consequences of this general reaction 
and assign a limit to this coalition ? 

" Confound your enemies, Sire, frustrate their 
plans, make peace, if only to let the storm pass by. 
This will calm them, and prevent their using the 
same means to excite enthusiasm. No sacrifice is 
asked of French honor, because nothing is asked of 
France. . . . France and the world ask peace of 
you. The peace which is proposed to you will be 
of more service to you than the happiest war. Deign, 
Sire, to listen to this prayer for peace, and permit a 
good Frenchman, a man who loves your true glory 
as much as his country, to present it to you." 

Whether it was that these noble words had touched 
Napoleon's heart, or that he wished to assume an air 
of moderation because he knew that Prussia and 
Austria would not accept his last offer, the Emperor 
sent to the Duke of Vicenza full powers with a 
despatch conceding all Austria's demands. This 
despatch reached Prague August 15, at one in the 
morning. Five days sooner, it would have saved 
everything. The 15th, Metternich said to the Duke 
of Vicenza, " The propositions made by France to-day 
would have made peace on the 10th, because then 
Austria would have used all the force of its authority 
against the allies, if they had not accepted them. I 
repeat it, the 10th, the Emperor Napoleon might have 
given the world peace. . . . To-day we have one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand Russians among us, and we 



248 MABIE LOUISE. 



have made agreements with them. The Russians 
and Prussians have made a treaty with Sweden. We 
have none yet with those two powers, and, on the 
10th, we had none with any one. It is not our fault, 
if you were unwilling to speak when we asked you 
so to do." The Austrian Minister promised to com- 
municate the French propositions to the allies, but 
without any illusion as to the possibility of agree- 
ment. The same day, August 15, the Emperor of 
Russia entered Prague, and the. Duke of Yicenza 
withdrew to the castle of Konigsraal, near the city. 
The next day he learned that the Czar and the King 
of Prussia had rejected the conditions proposed by 
the Emperor Napoleon as inadmissible. Negotiations 
were definitely broken off, and war was to decide 
everything. 

Meanwhile, what was going on in Paris? The 
Emperor's birthday had been celebrated, August 
15, with the customary festivities. The Empress- 
Regent, preceded and followed by her lady of honor, 
and the ladies and gentlemen in waiting, went to the 
Throne Room, in the Tuileries. The Grand Chamber- 
lain there presented the Princes, the Cardinals, the 
High OfQcers of the Crown, the Grand Eagles of the 
Legion of Honor, the Princes of the Confederation 
of the Rhine, and all those who had the right of 
admission. The Grand Master of Ceremonies then 
introduced the Diplomatic Body and all went to the 
chapel to hear mass and the singing of a Te Deum. 
Then there was a great audience in the Emperor's 



TUE LAST FESTIVITIES. 249 



apcartments, and in the evening the second act of the 
Opera Dido was given in the palace theatre. After 
the performance, Marie Louise appeared on a balcony, 
amid the applause of the crowd, and listened to a 
concert given on the terrace and looked at some fire- 
works which were set off in the Place de la Concorde. 
The Empress spent the night at Saint Cloud. The 
populace, who had no idea of what was going on at 
Prague, and still hoped for an earl}^ peace, celebrated 
the Emperor's birthday with great rejoicing ; but it 
was for the last time. 

August 25, Marie Louise's birthday, was celebrated 
with great splendor. Napoleon had wished her to go 
to Cherbourg to preside at the opening of the grand 
basin. Her journey thither was one succession of ova- 
tions. She entered Caen August 24 amid the roar 
of cannon and the ringing of bells. The town was 
decked as for a rustic festival ; every house was 
adorned with leaves and garlands. In the morning 
of the 25th, the Empress passed beneath a triumphal 
arch raised at the crossing of the roads from Paris to 
Cherbourg, and from Bordeaux to Rouen. At nine 
in the evening, she reached Cherbourg. The next 
morning, the 26th, at eleven o'clock, she visited the 
Port Napoleon. Fifty young girls, dressed in white, 
threw rose-leaves beneath her feet ; they were headed 
by the daughter of the sub-prefect of Cherbourg. 
This girl gave tlie Empress a basket containing 
several pieces of lace made in that region, and re- 
cited some verses composed for the occasion, which 
all her companions repeated in chorus. 



250 MABIE LOUISE. 



The Empress, accompanied by the Minister of the 
Navy, went down into the basin, to admire the work 
before the waters of the ocean should be admitted for 
all time. Meanwhile, two English men-of-war were 
tacking to and fro at a distance of about four leagues. 
The new moon and the springtide determined the 
destruction of the dam for the next day. The sailors 
and a great number of workmen were employed in 
making three openings in the dam, through which 
the water, as it rose, should enter the basin. The 
27th more than forty thousand persons filled all the 
neighboring approaches, and crowded the elevations, 
whence, as from the rising seats of an amphitheatre, 
they could witness the whole ceremony. Near the 
dam there had been set up a pavilion for the use of 
the Empress. She entered it at six in the evening, 
just as the sea began to enter the basin. All the 
cannon on the platforms about the Port Napoleon 
were set off, and rapturous applause broke out. The 
Bishop of Constance, with all his clergy, received 
the Empress with an address ; then turning towards 
the further port, he recited the usual prayers and 
blessings. The sea rose majestically, and gradually 
filled the basin through the three openings. At nine 
in the evening the crash occurred, the dam gave way 
with a loud roar, and the basin was filled to the level 
of the sea. 

During this grand festivity, Marie Louise seemed 
depressed. She had reached Cherbourg tired by the 
bad roads beyond Carentan, suffocated by the dust. 



THE LAST FESTIVITIES. 251 



and with a bad cold on her chest. At Cherbourg 
she heard of the resumption of hostilities. The 
honors that met her were no consolation. Septem- 
ber 5, at one in the morning, she was back at Saint 
Cloud, and the memory of the ovations she had 
received had not dispelled her uneasiness and her 
gloom. 



XVII. 

THE KESUMPTIOK OF HOSTILITIES. 

THE war had begun again under formidable con- 
ditions. At the very moment when Marie 
Louise was presiding at the inauguration of the 
basin at Cherbourg, Napoleon was fighting the battle 
of Dresden, which lasted two days, August 26 and 
27, 1813. After the first day he returned at mid- 
night to the castle of the King of Saxony, and spent 
the whole night in dictating orders. At dawn he 
got on his horse again in vile weather; rain and 
blood were equally abundant. Moreau, forgetful of 
his laurels at Hohenlinden, had just taken service in 
the Russian army, and had had his two legs carried 
away by the side of the Emperor Alexander. That 
evening Napoleon returned victorious to Dresden, 
wet to the skin, as if he had fallen into the river. 
The King of Saxony, his staunch ally, kissed him 
tenderly, greeting him as his preserver. The bat- 
talion of the Guard, who had surrounded him during 
the battle, and had escorted him to the Saxon capital, 
was under arms the next morning, in the courtyard, 
in as good trim as at a review in the Place du 
252 



THE BESUMPTTON OF HOSTILITIES. 253 



Carrousel. These brave soldiers, instead of restincr 
after all their fatigues and perils, had spent the niglit 
cleaning and drying their uniforms about large fires. 
A word from the Emperor was their reward. 

Marie Louise heard of the victory of Dresden 
before leaving Cherbourg. She wrote to the Baron 
of Meneval : " My health would be excellent were 
it not for my cough, which is very fatiguing ; I shall 
not do anything for it until I get l^ack to Paris. 
Besides, the good news I have heard to-day does me 
more good than any medicine. I hope this great vic- 
tory will soon bring back the Emperor and, with him, 
peace." 

This was fortune's last smile. Napoleon, intoxi- 
cated with his success, had no suspicion of the disas- 
ters that awaited him. The allies had retreated in 
disorder through all the roads of the mountains, 
which were cumbered with wounded and baggage. 
The conqueror, who had them pursued, counted, 
for the completion of their defeat, on General 
Vandamme's army corps, Avhile he himself, by the 
fatigues and exposure of the battle, was compelled 
to return to Dresden. But August 30, at Culm, Gen- 
eral Vandamme met Avith defeat, wherewith began 
the series of misfortunes which brought about the 
successive defections of Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, of all 
the Princes of the Confederation of the Rhine, and 
culminated in the catastrophe of Leipsic. 

Napoleon spent the whole month of September in 
manoeuvring in turn against the Prussian army of 



254 MARIE LOUISE. 



Silesia and against the Austrian army of Bohemia, 
both of which declined battle. If he advanced 
against Bliicher, the Austrians descended into Sax- 
ony; if he advanced against Schwarzenberg, the 
Prussians threatened Dresden. Meanwhile, Wiir- 
temberg was in open insurrection ; the Cossacks had 
captured Cassel ; the Saxons and Wiirtembergers 
were worked upon by secret societies, and the King 
of Bavaria, under the compulsion of his people, gave 
notice to the Emperor that he should be obliged to 
join the coalition. " My star grew dim," said Napo- 
leon, speaking of this period at Saint Helena ; " I 
felt the reins slipping through my fingers, and I was 
powerless. Nothing but a miracle could have saved 
us, and every day by one fatality after another our 
chances diminished. Ill will began to appear among 
us ; fatigue and discouragement overcame the major- 
ity ; my lieutenants became lax, awkward, careless, 
and consequently unsuccessful ; they were no longer 
the men of the beginning of the Revolution, nor those 
of my successful days. The superior generals were 
tired; I had granted them too much respect, too 
many honors, too much wealth. They had tasted the 
cup of pleasure, and were anxious for ease at any 
price. The holy fire burned dim." 

What discouraged all thinking men, soldiers as Avell 
as civilians, was the entry of Austria into the coali- 
tion. France might have been able to resist all its 
other enemies together; but to fight against their 
armies and the Austrian armies as well, was too much. 



THE RESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES. 255 



even for the bravest troops ; even for a general like 
Napoleon. His father-in-law had become the most 
dangerous of his enemies, and yet, even when at Avar, 
he wrote to him in the most courteous way, as in tlie 
happiest days of the alliance. September 6, 1813, the 
Emperor Francis replied tlius : — 

"My Brother and very Dear Son-in-laav: I 
have received the letter which Your Imperial Majesty 
wrote to me August 29 last. The assurance it con- 
tains of the excellence of your health gives me the 
keenest pleasure. My own is no less good, and I take 
this opportunity to beg Your Imperial jNIajesty to 
forward to my daughter, the Empress, tlie enclosed 
letter, which I cannot entrust to better hands tlian 
those of Your Imperial Majesty. I beg you to 
receive the assurance of the high regard and of the 
sincere personal attachment which I invariably feel 
for you. Your Imperial Majesty's kind brother and 
father-in-law, Francis." 

A sad and curious contrast: these two sovereigns 
styling each other brothers, congratulating each other 
on their good health, while their people were cutting 
one another's throats. 

" Quidquid deliraiit reges, plectuntur Achivi." 

September 11, 1813, between the battles of Dresden 
and of Leipsic, Napoleon wrote to the Duke of Bas- 
sano : " The desire for news is so eager in Paris that 
you must not lose a moment in sending it. Make 
everything as moderate as possible, and admit noth- 
ing personal against the Emperor or iNIetternich.' 



^56 MABIE LOUISE. 



Marie Louise, who adored her father, was very ghid 
to receive a letter from him. " I camiot tell you," 
she wrote to him, September 23, "what happiness I 
felt when I found your letter in one from the Em- 
peror. I was deepl}^ touched by this attention. I 
had expected not to hear from you so long as the war 
lasted. This silence was very painful for me. . . . 
Every day I pray God to put an end to hostilities, for 
then I should be calm, and my feelings would no 
longer be divided. . . . The Emperor has promised 
to be careful to forward all my letters. I shall write 
as often as possible, for you know, dear father, that 
that is one of my greatest pleasures. I often think 
of you, and I am much touched by your satisfaction 
with my feelings. You see, dear father, that I do 
my best to follow the principles I have learned from 
your example." Marie Louise was mistaken when 
she hoped to be able to write to her father; she was 
not free to do this until the second half of November. 

Meanwhile, however, the Emperor Francis wrote 
again to his son-in-law. From Toplitz, September 
28, 1813, he wrote to him this letter : — 

"My Brother and very Dear Son-in-law: I 
have received Your Imperial Majesty's letter dated 
September 25. Since Zamosz was not besieged by 
my troops, I could not interfere Avith the terms of 
surrender, which had to be agreed upon by the 
respective commanders. Your Majesty can have no 
doubt of my desire for peace. Out of my reign of 
twenty-one years, ten have been lost for the hap2:)iness 



Tni: BESU3iPTI0N OF HOSTILITIES. 257 



of my nation. The paper which the Duke of Bassano 
sent August 18 to Count Metternich seems to prove 
that Your Majesty shares my conviction, which is 
also that of my allies, that Europe can no longer 
be wholly pacified, and that it would be better to 
take all the risks of the present war than to bring it 
to an end, while preserving the fear of new and 
inevitable disturbances. Simultaneousl}^ with the Em- 
peror of Russia and the King of Prussia, I have 
forwarded to England Your Majesty's overtures. I 
expect shortly the answer of the Prince-Regent, and 
I shall speedly communicate it to Your Imperial 
Majesty. You are quite right in mentioning to me, 
among the motives that make peace desirable, the 
misfortunes of France. The welfare of the country 
in which my daughter is established will never be 
indifferent to me ; and doubtless P^rance has, no less 
than Austria and the rest of Europe, need of peace. 
If Your Majesty's intentions favor conditions which 
can make this general, France will owe to you its 
happiness, and Europe its tranquillity. Your Imperial 
and Royal Majesty's kind brother and father-in-law, 

" Francis." 
Thus, then, at the very height of the war, llie 
Emperor of Austria manifested regard for his son-in- 
law, and addressed him in almost fi'iendly terms. 
We are convinced that at this moment he had no 
thought of the Bourbons, and that the idea of 
dethroning his daughter had not crossed his mind. 
Napoleon, whose chances were dwindling from day 



258 MARIE LOUISE. 



to day, miglit yet have saved his crown. Doubtless 
the integrity of his vast Empire was forever compro- 
mised ; but yet, we think he could have saved for 
France its natural frontiers, and have prevented the 
soil of the great nation from being profaned by 
foreigners. At this time his father-in-law had not 
become his irreconcilable enemy. 

Marie Louise did not despair of a reconciliation 
between her father, whom she adored, and her hus- 
band, to whom she was sincerely attached. It would 
not be easy to suppose .that the German ideas and 
feelings, in which she had been brought up since her 
tenderest infancy, had not left traces. But these she 
carefully concealed ; and possibly she did not confess 
to herself anything like sympathy for the national 
movement of Germany ; at any rate, she discharged 
her duties as Empress-Regent in the most irreproach- 
able way, and no one in France, or elsewhere, ever 
suspected her of placing filial duty above her duties 
as wife and mother. 

It was Marie Louise herself whom Napoleon 
charged with making a solemn appeal to French 
patriotism. October 8, 1813, she went in a great 
procession to the Palace of the Senate. Preceded 
by the heralds at arms, the masters of ceremonies, 
the councillors of state, the grand eagles, the high 
officers of the Empire, the Ministers, the ladies of 
the bed-chamber, the ladies of the palace, the 
Knight of Honor, the High Chamberlain, the Grand 
Master of Ceremonies, the Princes holding high 



THE BESU3fPTI0y OF HOSTILITIES. 259 



positions, she drove from the Tuileries to the Luxem- 
bourg in the Coronation carriage, in which were 
also the Lady of Honor, the Duke of ConegHano, 
who discharged the duties of Colonel General, and 
Count Caffarelli, the Emperor's aide, Commander of 
the Guard. The equerries were on horseback about 
the carriage ; troops escorted her, and salutes were 
fired. The high officers of the Senate and twenty- 
four Senators received the Empress at the outer door 
of the palace. The Empress, after resting in the 
apartments arranged for her reception, went to the 
hall where the Senate met, at the head of the 
procession. At her arrival all the Senators rose. 
She ascended the throne which was to the left 
of the Emperor's. One step lower to the right and 
left of the throne sat on chairs the Princes ; to 
the right and left, on the steps, the Ministers and 
High Officers ; before and behind the throne, on 
stools, sat the Chamberlain and the Grand Master of 
Ceremonies. Behind Marie Louise stood the Lady 
of Honor, the Duke of Conegliano, Count Caffarelli, 
the Knight of Honor, the First Equerry, the Lady of 
the Bed-chamber, the ladies of the palace, the 
Chamberlain and the equerries, the Master of Cere- 
monies; a little lower, the assistant masters of 
ceremonies, and the pages seated on the steps of the 
throne. 

Amid a solemn silence the Empress-Regent read 
the following speech: "Senators: The principal 
powers of Europe, disgusted with tlie chiims of 



260 MARIE LOUISE. 



England, joined last year tlieir armies with ours, to 
secure the peace of the world and the re-establish- 
ment of national rights. At the first chances of war 
slumbering passions awoke. England and Russia 
have drawn Prussia and Austria to their side. Our 
enemies desire to destroy our allies, to punish them 
for their fidelity. They wish to carry the war into 
our beautiful country to avenge the triumphs which 
bore our victorious eagles to the heart of their coun- 
tries. I know better than any one, what our people 
would have to fear if they ever let themselves be con- 
quered. Before ascending the throne, to which I was 
called by the choice of my august spouse, and by my 
father's wishes, I had the highest opinion of the cour- 
age and energy of this great people. This opinion 
has been daily strengthened by everything that I 
have seen. Sharing for four years my husband's 
most intimate thoughts, I know by what emotions he 
would be torn on a throne, disgraced, wearing a dis- 
honored crown. Frenchmen, your Emperor, your 
country, your honor appeal to you I " 

As soon as the Empress had stopped, warm ap- 
plause broke out. Then the Count of Laciepede arose 
and said: "Madame: Before proposing to the Senate 
measures regarding the decree of the Senate, I have 
the honor of begging Your Imperial Majesty to deign 
to allow me to offer her, in the name of my col- 
leagues, the respectful homage of all the feelings 
with which we are inspired by seeing Your Majesty 
preside over the Senate, and by hearing the memor- 



THE BESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES. 261 



able words she has spoken from the throne. AVith 
what gratitude, with what pious care we shall ever 
guard their memory ! " 

The Archchaiicellor then received the Empress's 
orders before giving the floor to the Minister of War, 
and to Count Regnaud who presented the outline of 
a decree of the Senate proposing a draft of two hun- 
dred and eighty thousand men, one hundred and 
twenty thousand of the classes of 1814 and previous 
years, in the departments which had not contributed 
to the last draft of thirty thousand men, and one hun- 
dred and sixty thousand of the conscription of 1815. 
Then the Empress returned to the Tuileries in great 
pomp. 

In official circles every means Avas tried to kindle 
enthusiasm. October 17, after mass, Marie Louise 
gave an audience, in the Hall of Mars, at the Palace 
of Saint Cloud, to the Municipal Council of Paris. 
The Prefect of the Seine read the following address : 
" Madame : What Frenchman can remain deaf to the 
voice of the Emperor, to the appeal of his country, 
and of honor? The appeal which Your Majesty has 
just made has found an echo in every heart; the 
need is felt of manifesting those generous sentiments 
which in all time have been the proudest possession 
of France. This esteem which Your Majesty had 
long since conceived for this great people, the love 
she feels for it, the hopes to which she has given 
birth, will not be deceived ; the august daughter of 
Maria Theresa cannot summon in vain the courage 



262 MARIE LOUISE. 



and energy of her people ; the French will have no 
rivals in their love for their Sovereigns ; they will 
count no sacrifices, no efforts when honor commands ; 
they cannot live without glory, and their Emperor's 
crown shall never be despoiled of a single laurel. 
This is the unanimous oath sworn to to-day through- 
out the Empire ; these are the feelings which the 
good city of Paris expresses, in laying at Your 
Majesty's feet the tribute of its respect and devotion. 
Madame, it is by redoubling their zeal and affection, it 
is by turning their eyes to this august throne, to 
which Your Majesty has brought with every virtue, 
the noble courage of her ancestress, that the inhabi- 
tants of the good city of Paris are inspired as faith- 
ful subjects, with all that they owe to their Prince 
and to their country." 

While Marie Louise was thus receiving the protes- 
tations of devotion which, in less than a year, were 
to be repeated, not to her, but to the Bourbons, the 
Emperor w^as fighting the bloodiest battle of modern 
times, which the Germans call the Battle of Nations, 
— the battle of Leipsic. It was fought from the 16th 
to the 18th of October. Napoleon's army, consisting 
of one hundred and forty thousand men, contended 
heroically with a hostile force of three hundred thou- 
sand men. In the centre, and to the right, it main- 
tained its position ; but on the left treachery made it 
lose ground. There, forty thousand men were crushed 
by one hundred thousand men and three hundred can- 
non, commanded by Bernadotte — the former Mar- 



THE RESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES, 263 



shal of France, who, with the Emperor's permission, 
had become the Crown Prince of Sweden — when 
twelve thousand Saxons, forming nearly a third of 
the left, ran over to the Russians, entering their ranks, 
and at Bernadotte's request, discliarged their artillery 
on the French, their fellow-soldiers whom they had 
just abandoned. Night put a stop to the carnage. 
Napoleon was beaten. 

Retreat was imperative. This was such a cruel 
blow to the Emperor's pride that he was nearly pros- 
trated. An enormous mass of wounded, cannons, 
baggage, and about ninety thousand men, still under 
arms, were hemmed in against the city of Leipsic, 
between two rivers with but one narrow bridge, be- 
yond which ran a defile half a league long across deep 
marshes. To make the retreat sure, it was necessary 
to make many bridges, which could easily have been 
constructed in the night of October 19. Men and ma- 
terial were abundant ; but Napoleon, although he was 
told that a vast and disorderly throng encumbered 
the approaches to the Elster bridge, took no precau- 
tions. At noon of the 19th he went to bid farewell 
to his unfortunate ally, the King of Saxony, who was 
in the middle of the city. Meanwhile, the suburbs 
were invaded on all sides. A new battle began on 
the ramparts, in the streets, from house to house. 
The crowd was so impenetrable that Napoleon, after 
leaving the King of Saxony, could not make his way 
out of Leipsic through the Lindenau gate. Com- 
pelled to retrace his steps, he went around the city 



264 MABIE LOUISE. 



along the boulevards, and thus got to the Elster 
bridge, where the crowd was so dense that his escort 
could only make their way through by violence. As 
soon as he had crossed the bridge, he alighted, and 
gave orders that it was not to be destroyed till after 
the passage of the army corps and of the artillery 
guarding the approach to it. 

The Elster bridge was destined to be as fatal as 
that of the Beresina. When the defection of the 
Baden troops gave them command of the city, the 
allies hastened to the bridge. Then the French sap- 
pers who had charge of blowing it up, thought the 
time had come, and fired the mine. 

The French rear-guard, consisting of fifteen thou- 
sand men, almost as many wounded, and with an 
immense quantity of wagons, thus saw itself cut off 
from the rest of the army which had already crossed, 
and they uttered a long, despairing cry. It was a 
terrible scene. One truly brave man, whom the 
Emperor the evening before had made marshal for 
his heroic conduct. Prince Poniatowski, plunged on 
horseback into the current of the Elster, to gain the 
other bank. He was drowned. It seemed as if the 
fortune of France and of Poland sank at the same 
time beneath the wave. The glorious death of the 
Polish hero made a deep impression, even then ; when, 
after such fearful slaughter, after a battle like that of 
Leipsic, where a hundred and ten thousand men were 
killed or wounded, death seemed a familiar story. A 
picture of Horace Vernet's and a song of Beranger's 



THE BESUMPTION OF UOSTILITIES. 265 



have combined to make of the noble victim plunging 
into the fatal waters of the Elster one of the most 
famous and most touching of legends. 

This defeat at Leipsic was for Napoleon a combi- 
nation of grief and surprise. Of all the battles he 
had fought, tliis was the first that he had lost. Up 
to that time he could boast that if he had been con- 
quered by the elements, he had never been conquered 
by man ; and now he was to know for himself the 
sufferings he had inflicted on others. He was to 
learn by personal experience the bitterness of defeat, 
the anguish of retreat, the desperation of useless 
bloodshed. War, which up to that time had been a 
source of gratification to his unparalleled pride, now 
showed to him its horrors, with its humiliations and 
inexpressible anguish. The hour had struck when 
he could make tardy reflections on the emptiness of 
genius and glory, on the intoxication of pride that had 
turned his head. He was obliged to acknowledge to 
himself that everything that his true friends, Caulain- 
court, Otto, Narbonne, and many others had told him, 
was perfectly true. In his own heart, he knew that 
his boasted infallibility was a mere idle dream ; that 
he had judged men and circumstances wrongly; 
that he had blundered as a soldier and a diplomatist ; 
that at the Congress of Prague he had done wrong to 
refuse the generous conditions offered by Austria; 
that Metternich had predicted to him at Dresden 
what had just happened ; that every needed warning 
had been given to him in due time, and that, in fact. 



266 MARIE LOUISE. 



he was alone to blame. For a character as proud and 
impetuous as that of the great Emperor, it is easy to 
imagine what such a confession, wrung from him by 
the course of events, must have cost him. 

At certain moments the fallen giant seemed dazed 
and stupefied, unable to advance or to draw back. 
He awaited the issue with a sort of fatalism. He 
exposed himself like a simple soldier, as if he saw in 
death a solution, an escape. He was tortured by the 
thought of appearing defeated and humiliated, before 
his wife, his Ministers, and the Parisians. It seemed 
to him like descent from the capitol to the potters' 
field. So accustomed was he to victories and ova- 
tions that every road which did not pass under a tri- 
umphal arch appeared to him like one of shame. 
Without glory he could not breathe. He had as yet 
no experience of misfortune. He had so long been the 
favorite of Fortune that he was perhaps more surprised 
than grieved by finding her fickle. This struck him 
as something abnormal, inexplicable. The thought 
that with a little moderation he might have been 
spared his defeats, and that by giving up a little, he 
might have kept everything, distressed him beyond 
measure. His sole consolation was to say that he had 
been betrayed ; but every one had predicted to him 
this treachery of Germany, of its diplomatists and its 
generals. In fact, he had been the architect of his 
own ruin. 

October 19 he slept at the mill of Lindenau, where 
he stopped, utterly worn out, and was sound asleep 



THE RESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES. 267 

when he was awakened by the news of the Elster 
disaster. At first he refused to believe it, but when 
he was convinced of it, he had to continue his humil- 
iating retreat without delay. On his way he saw 
once more the battlefield of Liitzen Avhere he had 
gained that brilliant but barren victory. October 21 
he passed, silent and morose, between the memories 
of Rossbach and Auerstadt. At Erfurt, the 23d, he 
recalled the memorable interview of 1808. Accord- 
ing to General de Segur it was noticed that while he 
was dictating his orders he turned his eyes away 
from the place where he had seen the Emperor Alex- 
ander bow before his fortune, proud of his friend- 
ship, and enthusiastic over his glory. The retreat 
continued amid unceasing obstacles. The troops, in 
greater and greater confusion, were harassed by hun- 
ger, fatigue, and sufferings of every sort. Napoleon 
narrowly escaped being prevented from crossing the 
Rliine. At the pass of Hanau, fifty thousand Aus- 
trians and Bavarians blocked his path; he thought 
that he was lost. He exposed himself recklessly to 
the shells bursting all about him, refusing to seek 
shelter. General Drouot's artillery saved him; he 
hurled the enemy back, and continued his journey. 
November 2 he was at Mayence. His whole army, 
now reduced to sixty thousand men, had crossed the 
Rhine. 

" This memorable campaign," Napoleon said at 
Saint Helena, " will be famous as the triumph of the 
innate courage of the French youth, of the crafty 



268 MABIE LOUISE. 



intrigues of English diplomacy, of the intelligence 
of the Russians, of the shamelessness of the Austrian 
Cabinet. It will mark the period of the disorgani- 
zation of political societies, that of the severance 
between sovereigns and their peoples, and finally of 
the decay of the primary military virtues; fidelity, 
loyalty, honor. . . . What is very remarkable is 
that the kings, the soldiers, and the people had in 
fact nothing to do with these infamies, which were 
the work of a few military intriguers and political 
desperadoes who, under the specious pretext of 
removing the stranger's yoke and of recovering 
national independence, simply sold and delivered 
their rulers to rival and covetous cabinets. It was 
the King of Saxony, the most honest man that ever 
wielded a sceptre, who was robbed of half his prov- 
ince ; it was the King of Denmark, so true to his 
promises, who lost his crown. Yet that is the retprn 
to morality, its triumph and distributive justice, in 
this world! However, I take pleasure in repeating 
for the honor of humanity, and even of thrones, that 
amid all these infamies, there were also unequalled 
virtues. Not for a moment did I have to complain 
of a single one of the Princes, my allies. The good 
King of Saxony remained faithful to me to the end ; 
the King of Bavaria loyally sent me word that he 
was no longer master; the King of Wiirtemberg's 
generosity was especially remarkable. The Prince of 
Baden yielded only to force, and at the last moment. 
All, I must say in justice, gave me warning in time, 
in order that I might make ready for the storm," 



THE RESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES. 269 



This remark of Napoleon's is very striking. It is 
certain that the German Princes manifested less haste 
and shamelessness in their defection than did the 
French Senators. 

The Princes of the Confederation of the Rhine had 
been anxious to keep their promises to the Emperor, 
but they were prevented by the action of the univer- 
sities and by the popular uprising. " To the fervor 
of the Tugendhund^^ says General de Sdgur, " every- 
thing seemed equally honorable : vile spying, heroic 
devotion, perfidious enticing, sublime poetry, infamous 
treachery ; it inspired, lifted up, ennobled everything, 
and with glory or effrontery assumed every form." 
Professor Fichte in 1813 was lecturing on duty. He 
closed thus : " The course will be suspended until 
the end of the campaign. We shall then resume it 
when our country has become free once more, or Ave 
shall have died in trying to regain our liberty." A 
poet, transforming Queen Louisa of Prussia into a 
symbolic shade, said of her: "How sweetly she 
sleeps I Ah ! may you sleep until the day when the 
people shall wash in blood the rust from its sword ! 
Awake ! Be the angel of liberty and of vengeance I " 
Korner composed at the bivouac the hymn of the Lyre 
and the Sword : — 

" The Cavalier. Tell me, my good sword, sword of my side, 
■why to-day your glance is so bright ? You look at me with the 
eye of love, my good sword, you who make my joy ; hurrah ! 

" The Sivord. It is because a brave soldier carries me : that 
is why my glance is bright ; it is because I am the strength of a 
free man, that I am joyous ; hurrah ! 



270 MAE IE LOUISE. 



" The Cavalier. Yes, my sword ; yes, I am a free man ; and 
I love you from the bottom of my heart ; I love you like my 
betrothed; I love you like a dear mistress. 

" The Sword. And I have given myseK to you. To you I 
devote my life and my soul of steel ! Ah ! if we are betrothed, 
when will you say to me, ' Come, come, my beloved mistress ' ? " 

As Chateaubriand said: "The man whose life was 
a dithyramb in action fell only when the poets of 
Germany had sung and drawn their sword against 
their rival, Napoleon, the armed poet." 

Alas ! what is more lamentable than this colossal 
struggle in which such a vast sum of heroism was 
spent on both sides, and so many brave young men, 
inspired by the purest and noblest sentiments of the 
human heart, succumbed in the flower of youth, at 
this beginning of the nineteenth century, of which 
they should have been the ornament and the honor ! 
A German cannot withhold his admiration for these 
young French conscripts, who in a day acquired the 
intrepidity of the sturdiest veterans. Frenchmen, 
too, admire the young German students, soldiers, and 
poets, who so bravely left their universities for the 
camps. Such adversaries were made to esteem and 
understand one another, and they slew one another I 
Then if the blood that was shed had been fertile, if 
the conquerors had become free ! But no ; the sov- 
ereigns of the coalition were to forget the victory 
once gained, the liberal promises which they had lav- 
ished, and, in a word, it was the people who were to 
suffer for their kings ! 



273 



XVIII. 

THE END OF 1813. 

WHEN Napoleon had once more crossed the 
Rhine and was once more A\dthin his Empire, 
at Mayence, November 2, 1813, he suffered from a 
despondency which he could hardly conceal. This 
was not one of the triumphant returns to which he 
had accustomed his people. The hero of so many 
battles had been defeated at Leipsic. He dreaded 
meeting his young wife, in whose eyes he had ceased 
to be the incarnation of success. Instead of hastening 
to Saint Cloud, he waited six days at Mayence, leav- 
ing it on the 8th, at one in the morning, without 
sending word to Marie Louise by telegraph. 

The same day, a Sunday, the Empress was receiv- 
ing at Saint Cloud, in the Hall of Mars, after mass, 
deputations from six cities. That from Antwerp 
said, " Your good city of Antwerp, the recipient of 
so many favors from the government, would, Madame, 
deem itself wanting in the solemn demands of grati- 
tude if it did not hasten to lay before tlie throne the 
expression of the limitless devotion it feels for Your 
Majesty." The deputation from Brussels expressed 

271 



2'JC MABIE LOUISE. 



itself as follows, " The Belgians, united to the desti- 
nies of this illustrious Empire, have not forgotten the 
wars and the bloody revolutions to which their weak- 
ness had exposed them. They know that they would 
not have suffered these calamities if they had formed 
part of this great people. We, the mouth-pieces of 
your good city of Brussels, come to-day to assure 
Your Majesty that she will always find them ready 
to shed their blood to preserve for the French name 
the glory it owes to the Emperor's genius, and ready 
to offer their fortunes in defence of the Empire against 
those who dare to threaten it." The deputation from 
Ghent said, " Great prodigies ought to announce a 
century, that posterity, which always begins early 
for the founders of empires, already calls the century 
of Napoleon. The Belgian provinces, always proud 
to be part of this glorious Empire, hasten to outdo 
the sacrifices of the other provinces. The good city 
of Ghent which boasts of having been the birthplace 
of Charles V., one of the most illustrious ancestors of 
Your Imperial Majesty, proudly shows these glorious 
feelings." The deputation from Cologne said, " The 
memorable words uttered by Your Majesty in the 
Senate have deeply touched our hearts, and have 
kindled the most ardent enthusiasm. No, the coun- 
try's hopes shall not be deceived, and the French 
shall not have been called in vain to conquer the 
enemies of the Empire, the enemies of peace. Every 
citizen will fly to the field of honor and, under the 
banners of our august leader, will join the host of 



THE END OF 1S13. 273 



brave men who fight for the glory and for the j^eaee 
of the world." This, even at the end of 1813, was 
the language of the inhabitants of Belgium and of 
.the banks of the Rhine. Marie Louise, who only 
knew vaguely of the recent disasters, was still sur- 
rounded by courtiers and flatterers, who hid the truth 
from her and promised unflinching devotion. 

Napoleon, although defeated, could not make up 
his mind to abandon the airs of a conqueror. He 
wanted his return, gloomy as it was, to wear a glo- 
rious appearance. The eve of his departure from 
Mayence, when Marie Louise was receiving at Saint 
Cloud the deputation of the good Belgian and lllien- 
ish cities, an aide-de-camp of the Prince of Neufchatel 
reached Paris with twenty battle-flags of the enemy 
which Napoleon sent to the Empress. The arrival 
*of these flags had already been announced by the 
Emperor to Marie Louise in a letter from Frankfort, 
dated November 1, 1813. It ran as follows : — 

"Madame, and my very Deak Wife: I send 
you twenty flags captured by my armies at the bat- 
tles of Wachau, Leipsic, and Hanau. This is a mark 
of respect which I like to pay to you. I liope you 
will see in it a token of my great satisfaction with your 
conduct during the regency which I entrusted to you." 

Napoleon was anxious that the Parisians should 
learn at the same time from the Moniteur his return 
and the reception of the flags. Defeated or victori- 
ous, he always understood how to arrange pictur- 
esquely the events of his career. 



274 MARIE LOUISE. 



November 9, at five in the afternoon, Marie Louise, 
who was quietly installed at Saint Cloud, where the 
utter calm presented a marked contrast to the distant 
rumors of war, had no idea of the moment when her 
husband would return, when suddenly two carriages 
were heard driving into the courtyard. It was 
Napoleon arriving. He had already ascended the 
staircase when he saw liis wife before him. He 
kissed her affectionately ; she burst into tears, trem- 
bling with emotion. Then the little King of Rome 
was brought, and his father greeted him most ten- 
derly. Every one was moved by this pathetic spec- 
tacle. Napoleon said nothing about the way the 
campaign had turned out, and had not a word of 
blame for his father-in-law's desertion. 

November 14 there arrived at Paris a messenger 
from the allies, bearing an important communication ; 
a peace overture, which, in our opinion, still offered 
Napoleon a chance of safety. It was the Baron of 
Saint Aignan, the Emperor's Equerry, and his Minis- 
ter Plenipotentiary at Weimar. At the entry of the 
allies into that city, M. de Saint Aignan had at first 
been treated like a prisoner of war ; but then he was 
carried to Frankfort where all the principal Ministers 
of the sovereigns of the coalition were assembled, and 
after he had been treated with the utmost respect, he 
had been commissioned to carry to Napoleon a propo- 
sition leaving to France its natural frontiers. Was 
this a serious proposition or a feint? Opinion is 
divided on this question, " Being perfectly familiar 



THE END OF 1S13. 275 



with the state of mind of the French puhlic," says 
Metternich in his Memoirs, " I Avas convinced that to 
avoid irritating it, to offer it rather an aUurement 
which would be welcome to every one, it was better 
to flatter the national pride, and to speak of the 
Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees as the natural 
boundaries of France. In the aim of still more isolat- 
ing Napoleon, and at the same time of acting on the 
mind of the army, I proposed attaching the offer of 
immediate negotiations to the idea of natural bounda- 
ries. The Emperor Francis having approved of my 
project, I submitted it to the Emperor of Russia and 
to the King of Prussia. Both feared that Napoleon, 
confiding in the chances of the future, would take 
some prompt and energetic resolution, and refuse the 
proposition in order thus to determine the situation. 
I succeeded in inspiring tlie two sovereigns with my 
own conviction that Napoleon would never volunta- 
rily adopt this course." 

The Baron of Saint Aignan saw the Emperor at 
Saint Cloud, November 15. " This time at last," 
exclaimed Napoleon, "the English are willing to 
treat." At this moment the Czar, and especially the 
Emperor of Austria, did not desire the return of the 
Bourbons. France still overawed the allies. They 
dared cross neither the Pyrenees nor the Rhine. 
Ignorant that they were no longer faced by the 
France of 1792, full of ardor and enthusiasm, but a 
France wearied, exhausted, and discouraged, they 
were full of hesitation. The wisest of their generals 



276 MABIJE LOUISE. 



said that a peace in conformity with the Frankfort 
propositions would be for the sovereigns of the coali- 
tion a confirmation at once honorable and prudent. 
What strength Napoleon would have had, if, at once 
acting on the propositions that had been made to him 
he had accepted them unreservedly, and had imme- 
diately convoked the Legislative Body to announce 
the good news I This would have secured for him 
the approval of public opinion, not merely in France, 
but in all Europe. Instead of that, what did he do ? 
He replied November 16, but his answer was evasive. 
He designated Mannheim as the place for the meet- 
ing of the future Congress, but he threw no light on 
the propositions that had been made. He feared to 
show by a hasty agreement the impotence to which 
he was reduced, and France, even with its natural 
frontiers, seemed too narrow for him. The thought 
of having squandered in vain so many human lives 
beyond the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, dis- 
turbed and tormented him like a feebleness, a humil- 
iation, a remorse. He thought that there would 
always be time enough for such a confession. Hav- 
ing been so long accustomed to be the master over 
others, this haughty sovereign could not be satisfied 
with being master at home. Hence he let slip through 
his fingers the last moment of respite that fortune 
granted him before leaving him forever ; and when, 
December 2, he at last decided to accept the Frank- 
fort propositions, the allies, who had learned the true 
state of affairs, declined to grant them. Traitors 



THE END OF 1813. 277 



within the Empire had informed them of the royalist 
intrigues, and had tokl them that France, divided 
against itself, must surely fall their prey. Napoleon, 
when he opened his eyes to the light and saw the 
necessity of peace, had wished to confide the portfo- 
lio of Foreign Affairs to Prince Talleyrand ; Ijut he 
declined it, because the Emperor wished him to cease 
being Vice-Grand Elector on resuming the Ministry. 
It was then by means of this petty detail of etiquette 
that a combination failed which might have altered 
many things. Desirous of giving Europe, and espe- 
cially Russia, a pledge of peace. Napoleon, November 
20, appointed the sagacious and peace-loving Duke of 
Vicenza Minister of Foreign Affairs ; this was the 
man who had already given him many good counsels, 
and he was highly thought of by the Emperor Alex- 
ander. But it was too late ; as at the Congress of 
Prague, he had let the op^^ortunity slip by. The 
time for diplomacy had ended ; nothing was left but 
a final appeal to arms. This terrible catastrophe, of 
which no one had thought for a long time, so improb- 
able did it seem, the invasion so terrible for a conquer- 
ing race, was now threatening. 

Marie Louise, anxious and tormented, looked for- 
ward to the future Avith gloom. To the letter slie 
had received from her father through the Baron of 
Saint Aignan, she replied : " Heaven grant that we 
may soon renew our intimate and regular correspond- 
ence ; it would be a symptom of peace and calm ; it 
would be the end of my uneasiness. You cannot 



278 MABIE LOUISE. 



imagine liow much I am distressed by the thought 
that you and my husband are enemies, while you 
both have qualities which ought to bring you to- 
gether. The Emperor is wonderfully well. I found 
him stouter and better than before he left for the 
war. . . . We are soon going into the city ; I am 
sorry ; for the air of Saint Cloud is better than that 
of Paris." 

The etiquette was just the same ; the manners of 
the courtiers continued as obsequious as ever; yet 
the Empress detected on their faces signs of uneasi- 
ness. The anniversary of the coronation and of the 
battle of Austerlitz was celebrated for the last time. 
Saturday, December 4, 1813, there were free perform- 
ances in all the Paris theatres. Sunday, the 5th, a 
Te Deum was sung at Notre Dame, and the Parisians 
were invited to illuminate their houses in the even- 
ing. The tragedy of Ninus II, was given the same 
evening in the theatre at the Tuileries. The palace 
and the city were ablaze with countless lights, but 
they contrasted strikingly with the deep gloom that 
possessed nearly every one. All the activity of the 
police could scarcely prevent the expression of the 
general discontent. All were unanimous in blaming 
Napoleon for not making peace after the victories of 
Liitzen and Bautzen. He was criticised as much as 
he had been previously praised. The officials were 
dejected, dispirited; and Marie Louise, alarmed for 
herself, for her husband, for her son, no longer spoke, 
but was always in tears. 



THE END OF 1813. 279 



December 19 Napoleon opened the Legislative 
Body in person. He started from the Tuileries in 
great pomp. The procession passed through the gar- 
den, the Place de la Concorde, and over the bridge. 
He got out of his carriage at the foot of the steps, 
but was not received with the usual enthusiastic 
applause. The Empress, accompanied by Queen 
Hortense and surrounded by the officers of her house- 
hold, was already in the gallery, opposite lier hus- 
band's throne. In the midst of a stony silence he 
uttered a majestic but mournful speech, which was 
more likely to discourage than to reassure his hearers. 
" Brilliant victories," he said, " have adorned the 
French arms in this campaign; unexampled defec- 
tions have rendered these victories useless; every- 
thing has turned against us. France itself would be 
in danger, were it not for the energy and the har- 
mony of the French. ... I have never lost my 
head in prosperity, adversity would find me superior 
to its assaults. I have often given peace to nations 
that had lost everything. With a part of my con- 
quests I have built thrones for kings who have aban- 
doned me. I had conceived and carried out great 
designs for the world's prosperity I . . . As monarch 
and father, I feel that peace adds to the security of 
thrones as well as to that of families. Negotiations 
have begun with the united powers. I have consented 
to the preliminary propositions Avhich they presented. 
I had hoped that before the opening of your session, 
the Mannheim Conorress would have assembled ; but 



280 MABIE LOUISE. 



new delays, for which France is not to blame, have 
retarded this moment, anxiously expected by the 
whole world." Napoleon closed with a phrase 
which was only too frequent in his speeches : " My 
people," he said, with a pride unbroken by misfor- 
tune, " cannot fear that their Emperor's policy will 
ever betray the national glory; for my part, I am 
confident that the French will ever be worthy of 
themselves and of me." 

Two days after this speech was uttered, the inva- 
sion began. The allies crossed the Rhine, December 
21, between Basle and Schaffhausen. The 31st the 
Army of Silesia, commanded by Bliicher, also crossed 
it between Mannheim and Coblentz. In 1814 hap- 
pened what was to happen in 1870 ; for, unfor- 
tunately, experience is vain. France, which had 
thought of nothing but an offensive war, was totally 
unprepared for a defensive. The idea that the for- 
eigner could pollute the soil of the great nation, — 
the sacred soil, — had never crossed her mind. In 
1870 our officers had all the maps of Germany; none 
had maps of France. In 1814 the fortresses on the 
Elbe and the Vistula had been thoroughly equipped, 
but no one had thought of the French fortresses. 
Magdeburg and Hamburg had been supplied with 
what should have been at Strasburg and Metz ; 
Alessandria with what should have been at Grenoble. 

General de Segur describes the beginning of the 
invasion in this touching passage : " We passed," he 
says, " through the citadel of Phalsbourg as easily as 



THE END OF ISIS. 281 



if it had been a village ; not a gun was in its place ; 
not a sentinel was to be seen ; not one ' Who goes 
there?' stopped us; as if there had been no ram- 
parts, gates, or garrison. Enraged by this indiffer- 
ence, I bade the first drummer I met sound the alarm, 
announcing the enemy which was pursuing me. The 
commander at last woke up and closed the gates. 
He said he had been forgotten by the Minister, 
and had received no orders ; that his garrison was 
insufficient, without food, without a single gun-car- 
riage in proper condition." Then speaking of the 
spirit of the army, the brave general went on sadly : 
" What had become of the joyous, brilliant animation 
of our sturdy and victorious young men? What a 
change had come about ! Their faces marked with 
wounds and vigils now appeared grave and care- 
worn ! Their once calm and confident brows were 
now bald, or their hair was bleached, not by age, but 
by the fatigues of distant wars; and all were now 
depressed by the pain of seeing our country, liitherto 
victorious, threatened in its turn by the disgrace and 
the horrors of conquest ! There was the same differ- 
ence in their talk: instead of merry stories, and 
voices loud with confidence, there were muttered 
phrases, full to be sure of jests, but these were forced, 
bitter, derisive even of ourselves, as if anticipating 
those of the enemy, at last our master, and ready 
doubtless to repay with usury all the luimiliations 
that for more than fourteen years we had inflicted on 
them." 



282 MABIE LOUISE. 



It was not the army alone that suffered from this 
depression ; all France, worn out, exhausted by con- 
scription and taxes, shared the same feeling. Never 
had there been seen so many mothers in mourning. 
Never had war — war hated by mothers (hella matri- 
hus detestata) — appeared in a more terrible light. 
It inspired the same horror as the guillotine in old 
times. No one desired it more. A committee, 
consisting of Messrs. Laine, Raynouard, Gallois, 
Flaugergues, Maine de Biran, had been appointed to 
examine the diplomatic documents. 

This committee felt the influence of public opinion. 
" Our evils are at their height," exclaimed M. Ray- 
nouard; "the country is threatened at every fron- 
tier ; commerce is extinct ; industry is at the point of 
death; conscription has become an odious blight; a 
cruel and aimless war periodically destroys the young 
men. It is time for thrones to strengthen themselves, 
and for France to escape the reproach of carrying 
everywhere revolutionary torches." Napoleon, impa- 
tient of opposition, was very indignant. 

" Your committee," he said to the deputies, " has 
been guided by the spirit of the Girondists. Instead 
of assisting me, you aid the stranger. Instead of 
uniting, you divide us. Is this the moment to speak 
of abuses, Avhen two hundred thousand Cossacks are 
crossing the frontiers? The question is not about 
individual liberty and safety, but about national inde- 
pendence. Were you not satisfied with the Consti- 
tution? You should have asked for another four 



THE END OF 1813. 283 



years ago. . . . And in whose name do you speak? 
I alone am the real representative of the people; 
four times I have received the votes of five millions 
of citizens. An attack on me is an attack on the 
nation ! " 

And, December 31, he adjourned the Legislative 
Body indefinitely. The previous evening, its presi- 
dent, the Duke of Massa, had communicated to the 
questors this letter : — 

" Gentlemen : The Master of Ceremonies on duty 
has the honor of informing you that Saturday next, 
January 1, at midday, His Majesty the Emperor and 
King will receive in the Throne Room, in the Palace 
of the Tuileries, the congratulations of the Legisla- 
tive Body. Full dress will be worn. After this 
audience the Legislative Body will betake itself to 
the Diana Gallery to meet Her Majesty the Empress 
as she passes through, and to pay their respects to 
her." 



XIX. 

THE BEGINNING OF 1814. 

THE Moniteur of January 2, 1814, contained the 
following lines : " To-day, January 1, before 
mass, the Emperor being in the Throne Room, the 
Master of Ceremonies on duty, assuming the func- 
tions of the Grand Master of Ceremonies, after receiv- 
ing His Majesty's commands, introduced the Senate, 
the Council of State, the Legislative Body, the Court 
of Cassation, and the Municipal Council of Paris. 
These different bodies were led by a Master of 
Ceremonies and an aide, and were presented to His 
Majesty : the Senate and the Legislative Body by the 
Prince Vice-Grand Elector; the Court of Cassation 
and the Municipal Council of Paris by the Prince 
Archchancellor of the Empire. On leaving the 
Throne Room, these bodies went to the Diana Gal- 
lery, to form in line for the Empress to pass through, 
and to present their respects to Her Majesty." 

The Moniteur made no mention of the address, at 

once familiar and alarming, with which the Emperor 

had received them. " What do you want ? " he burst 

forth, assuming a fury which, in fact, he did not feel, 

284 



THE BEGINNING OF ISU. 285 



for he was perfectly master of liimself . " What do 
you want ? To take possession of the power ? But 
what would you do with it? What one of you could 
exercise it? Have you forgotten the Constituent 
Assembly, the Legislative Assembly, the Conven- 
tion? Should you be any more fortunate than they? 
Would not all of you perish on the scaffold like 
Guadet, Vergniaud, Danton? And besides, what 
does France need at this moment? Not an Assem- 
bly, not orators, but a general. Is there one among 
you ? And then where is your commission ? France 
knows me. Does it know you ? . . . The throne is 
not merely a combination of four pieces of gilded 
wood, covered with velvet. The throne is a man, 
and I am that man, with my will, my character, and 
my renown. . . . You Avanted to throw mud in my 
face. I am, you must know, a man who may be 
killed, but who cannot be insulted. . . . Besides, I 
don't defy you all. Eleven-twelfths of you are good 
men; but they let themselves be led by miscliief- 
makers. Go back to your departments , tell France 
that, whatever may be said, it is against her that 
war is made as much as against me, and that she 
must defend, not my person, but her own national 
existence." 

When he had returned to his apartments the Em- 
peror summoned the Archchancellor Cambac^rds, the 
Duke of Bassano, and the Duke of Rovigo. The last- 
named says in his Memoirs : " He was not at all 
angry with the Legislative Body ; he only complained 



286 MARIE LOUISE. 



in a general way that it was impossible to form an 
Assembly wliicli should proceed freely in the same 
direction as the government which it always looked 
on as an enemy ; and he pointed out that it was while 
showing the best intentions that King Louis XVI. 
had been gradually led to the scaffold." 

At heart the Emperor was rather saddened than 
enraged. " I need two months," he said ; " if I had had 
them, the enemy would not have crossed the Rhine. 
This may become serious, but I can do nothing about 
it alone. If I receive no help, I shall succumb. Then 
they will see whether it is with me that they are 
angry." When the Senators who were sent to the 
various provinces as extraordinary commissioners, to 
arouse the zeal and enthusiasm of the populace, came 
to take leave of him, he spoke to them with touching 
pathos, laying aside his pride to confess his faults at 
last. "I have been too fond of war," Louis XIV. 
had said on his deathbed. " I have made war too 
much," said Napoleon. " I had formed vast projects; 
I wished to secure for France the control of the world. 
I was mistaken ; these projects were not in propor- 
tion to the numerical strength of the population. I 
must expiate the mistake of relying too much on my 
good-fortune, and I shall expiate it. I shall make 
peace, such as the circumstances command, and this 
peace will not be mortifying for me. I, who made 
the mistake, must suffer, and not France. She has 
made no blunders ; she has lavished her blood for 
me ; she has refused me no sacrifice. Let her then 



THE BEGINNING OF ISI4. 28' 



have all the glory of my undertakings I I leave it to 
her. As for me, I reserve for myself the honor of 
showing a difficult courage, that of renouncing the 
greatest ambition in the world." 

It is easy to understand what a man like Napoleon 
must have suffered in making such avowals, wliich, 
it should be said, were not made public. At the 
Tuileries, etiquette went on as smoothly as ever ; but 
to those who examined it closely, it was evident that 
the machinery Avas only moving by the momentum 
it had acquired. Like France, the court was over- 
whelmed by a lassitude, both moral and physical. 
Enthusiasm was dead, except in the soul of some 
brave veterans and fiery youths who deserved to 
fight under better conditions. In vain was the at- 
tempt made to rekindle the sacred fire, by recalling 
the enthusiasm of 1792, by reviving patriotic songs, 
and by having played on the organs in the streets the 
air of the Marseillaise, to which had been adapted 
words in honor of Napoleon. But as Count Miot de 
M^lito says : " The grand ideas of liberty and equality 
which had moved the body of the nation were extinct. 
The affection for the throne, the love of the sovereign 
which previously filled their place, did not exist in 
behalf of a recent dynasty. The government alone 
spoke, and there was no response. Languor per- 
vaded every heart; the conscription had exhausted 
the strength of the nation. What could be done with 
such elements? Even those who employed them 
knew the general powerlessness, and the officials sent 



288 MAEIE LOUISK 



into the departments could not inspire a confidence 
which they did not feel themselves. The army alone 
remained devoted and faithful to its leader ; its 
defeats had not affected its affection ; but the gen- 
erals began to make claims, and to manifest discon- 
tent." 

Napoleon distrusted his brothers, his Ministers, his 
generals. He had a foreboding of speedy defections. 
Death on the field of battle did not seem to him the 
worst solution. What he most feared was the humil- 
iation of France. The thought that he might leave it 
smaller than he had received it from the hands of the 
Directory troubled him like a horrible nightmare. He 
could not think of it for fear that he might go mad with 
shame and grief. He suffered cruelly ; but, respect- 
ing his young wife's peace of mind, he kept from her 
all his mental anguish. He avoided speaking to her 
about the Emperor Francis and Austria. In her pres- 
ence, he was calm and majestic, as in the days of his 
supremacy. He even tried to be gentler, more atten- 
tive than usual. He regarded it as a point of honor 
to lose no jot of his coolness and dignity. As Count 
Mollien, Minister of the Treasury in 1814, remarked, 
he alone did not change when everything about him 
changed ; amid the many ruins which foretold his own, 
he continued impassible, trying to impress others with 
the confidence which he endeavored to assume him- 
self. He let no one suspect that one day he might 
be abandoned by his wife. He liked to have others 
believe, and possibly to believe himself, that she 



THE BEGINNTNG OF ISH4. 289 



would always be a model of virtue and fidelity. 
He proceeded without the sliglitest hesitation to in- 
vest her with the duties of Res^ent. Reg-ardino- her 
as forever a Frenchwoman, lie preferred her to his 
own brothers, and treated her as if there liad been 
no change in the Austrian policy. 

For her part, it never occurred to Marie Louise to 
distinguish between her cause and her husband's. 
She was, we are sure, determined to perform all lier 
duties as Empress, wife, mother, and to observe most 
scrupulously the oath which she Avas about to take 
as Regent to the Empire. She was told, besides, 
that the Duke of Vicenza was resuming diplomatic 
negotiations with the allies ; that the Napoleonic 
dynasty was immovable ; that France would certainly 
preserve its natural frontiers ; and tliat a reconcilia- 
tion between her father and her husband was immi- 
nent. This hope was her consolation. 

Marie Louise had written an affectionate and 
respectful letter to the Emperor Francis, to send him 
her good wishes for the new year; to which he at 
once sent the following answer : — 

" December 26, 1813. Dear Louise : I received 
yesterday your letter of December 12, and I am glad 
to hear that you are well. I thank you for your 
kind wishes for the new year ; they are very precious 
to me, because I know you. I send you mine Avith 
all my heart. As to peace, be sui-e that I desire it 
no less than you do, than France does, and, I hope, 
than your husband does. In peace alone can happi- 



290 MABIE LOUISK 



ness and security be found. My views are moderate. 
I desire everything that can make peace lasting ; but 
in this world wishes are not enough. I have solemn 
duties to perform with respect to my allies, and 
unfortunately, the question of the future and, I hope, 
speedy peace, is very complicated. Your country has 
turned all ideas upside down. In approaching this 
question, it is necessary to face just complaints or 
prejudices. Still this is no less the most ardent desire 
of my heart, and I trust that soon we shall be able 
to reconcile our nations. In England there is no ill 
will, but great preparations are making. Necessarily 
this causes some delay until things get fairly under 
way ; then, please God, all will go smoothly. The 
news you send iylQ of your son gives me great 
pleasure. Your brothers and sisters were, at last 
accounts, very well, and so was my wife. I, too, am 
in good health. Believe me as ever your loving 
father, Francis." 

At the beginning of 1814 Marie Louise, who heard 
much more talk about armaments than about nego- 
tiations for peace, wrote to her father a letter which 
contained this sentence, full of alarm : " Since your 
troops are at the French frontier, the whole nation 
is arming. I am afraid that the Emperor will leave 
soon for the army, and will leave me in the middle of 
this city, which is preparing for the combat." Far 
from her husband, the J^oung Empress was to feel 
lonely and anxious. Her principal counsellor was 
to be Joseph, wdiom she scarcely knew, and who, in 



THE BEGINNING OF ISI4. 291 



deep distress at losing the Spanish crown, had only 
within a few days recovered Napoleon's good t^races. 

At the end of 1813 Napoleon was on bad tei-ms 
with his four brothers. His quarrel witli Lucien 
still continued. He forbade Jerome to come to 
Paris, and the unhappy monarch, inconsolable for 
the loss of his Westphalian kingdom, was wandering 
with his shadow of a court, from Coblentz to Cologne, 
from Cologne to Aix-la-Chapelle. Louis's heart was 
full of bitterness, and though he submitted, it was 
only conditionally. " So long as Holland is occu- 
pied by the enemy," he Avrote to Caulaincourt, ''I do 
not claim the title of king, and it is a matter of 
indifference to me whether I am given another. I 
come simply as a Frenchman to share the dangers of 
the moment, and to be as useful as I can. If Hol- 
land falls again into the Emperor's power, and lie 
does not restore it to me, my conscience as King 
would prevent my remaining in France, and I should 
again depart. If, on the other hand, at the peace, 
Holland should be ceded to any other monarch than 
the Emperor, and my abdication were necessary for 
sanctioning the treaty, I should not refuse it." 

As for Joseph, he looked upon himself as a victim ; 
and at the end of 1813 he was still denouncing 
Napoleon from his castle of Morfontaine, where he 
lived surrounded by a little court which Count Miot 
de M^lito thus describes : " The assemblage of per- 
sons at Morfontaine presented a curious sight. 
There was to be seen a King of Spain without an 



292 3IABIE LOZnSE. 



inch of territory in tliat country ; a wife of a French 
general who had been raised to the rank of Prince 
and had become our mortal enemy ; a Princess, the 
daughter of the King of Wiirtemberg, who had been 
given in marriage to a brother of Napoleon, and who 
was to join a league formed to overthrow the Em- 
peror's power ; Spanish, German, and French courtiers, 
who had no more court to pay ; and to crown all, the 
Patriarch of the Indies, Grand Inquisitor of Spain, 
said mass to us from time to time. Hunting, fishing, 
picnics, meals, the card table, brought together the 
crowd who were surprised to find themselves together. 
We were all simply amusing ourselves until the tem- 
pest that was roaring at a distance should break upon 
us and scatter us." 

To Joseph's great despair. Napoleon, who saw at 
last that his brother's cause in Spain was absolutely 
desperate, had secretly negotiated with Ferdinand 
VII., who was still a prisoner in the Castle of 
ValenQay. Then a treaty had been drawn up, 
December 11, 1813, containing the following condi- 
tions : The restoration of Ferdinand VII. to the 
throne, the return of the French garrisons, the with- 
drawal of the Spanish and English armies beyond 
the Pyrenees, and a general amnesty. If this treaty 
had been signed a few weeks earlier, it would have 
saved the Empire, by adding to Napoleon's army all 
the French troops in Spain. But it was too late. 
The Spanish Kegency threw delays in the way of the 
recognition of the treaty, and Wellington continued 
his march. 



THE BEGINNING OF I8I4. 293 

When Joseph heard that the treaty of ValeiiQay 
had been signed, he was profoundly mortified. He 
regarded himself as tricked, insulted, betrayed by his 
brother ; and no sovereign by divine right was ever 
more furious at the loss of his crown. The King of 
Spain, after he was dispossessed, imagined that he 
could obtain another kingdom, as if Napoleon still 
had thrones at his disposition. A long and painful 
negotiation was to ensue between the two brothers 
before Joseph could resign himself to being simply 
a French Prince, still bearing the title of King. 
December 29, 1813, he wrote to the Emperor : — 

" Sire : The violation of Swiss territory has opened 
France to the enemy. In such circumstances I desire 
that Your Majesty should be convinced that my 
heart is wholly French. Having been brought back 
to France by events, I should be happy to be of any 
use to you, and am ready to undertake anything to 
attest my devotion. I also know. Sire, what I owe 
to Spain ; I see my duty, and I desire to do it thor- 
oughly. As to my rights I am anxious only to sacri- 
fice them in behalf of the general good of humanit}^ 
happy if, by this sacrifice, I may be able to contribute 
to the pacification of Europe. I hope that Your 
Majesty will consent to appoint one of his Ministers 
to come to an understanding on this subject with the 
Duke of Santa Fe, my Minister of Foreign Affairs." 

The Emperor replied : — 

" My Brother : I have received your letter of 
December 29. It contains too much wit for the posi- 



294 MARIE LOUISE. 



tion in wliicli I am placed. In two words tlie case 
stands thus : France is invaded, all Europe is in arms 
against France, and especially against me. You are 
no longer King of Spain. I do not desire Spain for 
myself, and I am not desirous of disposing of it; I 
do not care to interfere any further with the affairs 
of that country than to live in peace with it and to 
be able to make use of my army. What do you mean 
to do ? Do you desire to side with the throne like a 
French Prince ? You have my friendship, your suite, 
and will be my subject, as a Prince of the blood. 
Then you mjiist, like me, announce your position ; you 
must write me a plain letter which I can have printed, 
receive all the authorities, and show yourself zealous 
for me and for the King of Rome, and favorable to 
file Regency of the Empress. Do you not find that 
possible ? Have you not enough good sense for that ? 
If not, you must withdraw to a distance of forty 
leagues from Paris to some obscure provincial castle. 
There you will live quietly if I live ; you will be killed 
or arrested if I die. You will be of no use to me, to 
the family, to your daughters, to France ; but you 
will not be dangerous to me, and will not annoy me. 
Choose promptly, and decide." 

Joseph had to submit, and this he did. January 7, 
1814, he wrote to his brother : — 

"Sire; I have received Your Majesty's letter. 
You speak to me of friendship, and I confess that I 
had not expected this. I respect Your Majesty too 
highly, and I set too much store by your friendship. 



THE BEGINNING OF ISI4. 295 



not to accept it as heartily as before. The first proof 
of it that Your Majesty can give me is to apjKjint M. 
de Santa Fe, or any one else, to superintend the dis- 
tribution of aid to the excellent families that have 
followed me from Spain. The second is to approve 
my retaining the Spanish and French officers whom, 
after their showing me such remarkable devotion, I 
cannot abandon without becoming the most ungrate- 
ful and neglectful of men." 

The reconciliation between the two brothers was 
complete. January 10, 1814, Napoleon sent tliis 
letter to Joseph: — 

" My Brother : I have it published in an order of 
the palace, that henceforth you are to be announced 
as King Joseph, and the Queen as Queen Julia, with 
the honors and formalities employed for French 
Princes. ... I authorize you to wear the uniform 
of the grenadiers of my Guard, such as I wear my- 
self. I think it would be well for you not to wear 
any foreign orders, but simply a French decoration. 
Send me a list of the persons you Avould like to have 
form your household, as well as the Queen's house- 
hold, and tell me what day you would like to receive 
the court and the authorities." 

King Joseph established himself at the Luxem- 
bourg. The palace resumed the appearance it had 
worn eight years before, when Joseph lived in it as 
a French Prince and Grand Elector. January 16, 
1814, the Senators and high officers of the Empire 
called upon him there to pay their formal respects. 



296 MARIE LOUISE. 



At the very moment when Napoleon was becoming 
reconciled with King Joseph, he heard of the defec- 
tion of King Murat. Curiously enough, there were 
at that time two Queens of the Two Sicilies, one by 
divine right, the other by right of Napoleon's con- 
quests ; both were named Caroline. One was a sister 
of Marie Antoinette, the other the sister of the Em- 
peror Napoleon. Well, of these two Queens, the 
one of whom the Emperor had reason to approve 
was the sister of Marie Antoinette. While Caroline, 
Murat's wife, Avas already thinking of siding with 
Austria, against her own brother, the other Caroline 
took pains to send Napoleon word in good season. 
June 8, 1813, the Count of Narbonne, the French 
Ambassador at Vienna, had written to the Duke of 
Bassano, at that time Minister of Foreign Affairs : 
'' I must inform you of the arrival of an agent of the 
former Queen of Naples, the mother-in-law of the 
Emperor of Austria. He has orders to come to an 
understanding with the French Ambassador, and is 
to give me a memorandum of everything that he has 
seen, of everything with which he is charged. . . . 
This man, who brings, as it were, credentials from 
the Queen, talks of nothing but the hate of the Eng- 
lish in Sicily and Malta, of the ways of driving them 
out, and forces me, by everything that he says, to 
recall to your attention what I had the honor of lay- 
ing before you with regard to Prince Cariati." This 
Prince was aide-de-camp of King Murat; he had 
aroused the suspicions of the Count of Narbonne, 



THE BEGINNING OF I8I4. 297 

who wrote about liim thus : " Prince Cariati, who has 
come here under the pretext of buying horses, holds 
himself aloof from me more and more every day, and 
lives on most friendly terms with our enemies. Of 
whom, of what is he the agent?" So it was a Prin- 
cess of Bourbon, a Hapsburg by birth, who tried to 
open Napoleon's eyes to the approaching defection of 
the husband of a Princess Bonaparte ! And it was 
this same sister of Queen Marie Antoinette who was 
soon to reproach the Empress Marie Louise with 
having abandoned the Emperor in his misfortune ! 
That was certainly one of the strangest occurrences 
in a period fertile in contrasts and all sorts of sur- 
prises. 

The anticipations of the sister of Marie Antoinette 
were soon verified. King Joseph wrote, January 14, 
1813, to liis brother-in-law. King Murat : " I have just 
had a long interview with the Emperor, and I am 
convinced that he is sincerely desirous of peace. If 
you can contribute to that in any way, it will only 
be by siding as your heart and your duties direct, 
with the party that sincerely desires peace. You 
cannot forget that your political duty is to-day in 
harmony with the demands of honor, which require 
you to make every effort to procure peace for France 
that she may consolidate the present political institu- 
tions. I do not think I am wrong in thus stating to 
you my opinion. I am convinced that the misfor- 
tunes of France will sooner or later bring about your 
own. A prompt peace will save everything ; you 



298 MARIE LOUISE. 



ought then to aid it in every way, and to be sure that 
this peace will be of more service to you than any- 
thing which the allies may now promise you. Their 
promises are evidently fallacious ; the day when you 
shall give yourself up to them will have no morrow 
for you, because then they will have no interest in 
sparing you, and they will covet for themselves or for 
their families the possession of the most beautiful 
country in Europe. Your existence, my dear brother, 
is certainly bound up with the Imperial dynasty of 
France. If the Bourbons could reappear in France, 
do you think that you would long retain Naples? 
However, fortune has changed, and the allies are now 
the stronger ; but if all the Princes of the Emperor's 
family, if all Frenchmen follow my example, the 
balance will soon be restored, peace will be made, and 
the different States consolidated. This requires that 
you reject every other feeling, and that you throw 
yourself, with the noble enthusiasm for the right that 
distinguishes you, on the side of duty, of honor." 

Alas ! why did not Murat, the champion of the 
Revolution, the first cavalry officer in Europe, the 
embodiment of bravery, the hero of legend, listen to 
the patriotic advice of Joseph? He might have 
united his forces with those of Prince Eugene and 
have attacked the invasion in the rear; he would have 
saved the Empire and France ; he would have died 
on the throne, covered with glory, instead of being 
shot! But what did he do? He joined with Aus- 
tria, and declared war against France ; he invaded the 



THE BEGINNING OF ISI4. 299 



Roman States which then formed a French depart- 
ment, the Department of the Tiber, and became one 
of the principal members of the coalition. 

On hearing this Napoleon sent Monseigneur de 
Beaumont, the Archbishop of Bourges, to Fontaine- 
bleau, bearing this letter to the Pope : — 

" Very Holy Father : I turn to Your Holiness 
to inform you that inasmuch as the King of Naples 
has formed an alliance with the coalition, of which 
one object seems to be the eventual reunion of Rome 
with its States, His Majesty the Emperor and King 
has judged it in conformity with the true policy of 
his Empire and the interests of the Roman people to 
restore the Roman States to Your Holiness. He pre- 
fers seeing them in your hands to seeing them in the 
hands of any other Sovereign whatsoever. Conse- 
quently, I am authorized to sign a treaty re-establishing 
peace between the Emperor and the Pope. The tem- 
poral power of Your Holiness will be recognized, and 
the Roman States, so far as they have tfcen added to 
the French Empire, will be restored, together with 
the fortresses, to the hands of Your Holiness, or of 
his agents ; this Convention will relate only to tem- 
poral matters and to the Pope as Sovereign of Rome." 
This letter was given to the Pope January 20, 1814. 

Count d'Haussonville, in his fine and dignified 
studies on the Church of Rome and the First Empire, 
has observed : " Strangely enough it was the Emperor 
who voluntarily offered the Pope, not merely liberty, 
not merely the restoration of part of his States, but 



300 MABIE LOUISE. 



the complete re-establishment of his temporal sover- 
eignty as it had existed before all the wars, which, 
ever since the Revolution, had changed the whole 
face of Europe. Stranger still, by a curious exchange 
of positions, which almost seemed like a punish- 
ment, it was now Napoleon, who after violently 
wringing from the Pope so many sacrifices, was re- 
duced to wondering whether the Pope would receive 
this present from his hand. He was justified in his 
doubts, for Pius VII. refused it." 

The Holy Father received M. de Beaumont with 
his usual kindliness, but told him that he could not 
enter into any negotiations, because the restoration 
of his States, being a mere act of justice, could not 
become the subject of any treaty, and that besides, 
whatever he should do outside of his own States 
would seem the result of violence, and would be an 
occasion for offence for the Catholic world. "All 
that I ask," he went on, " is to return to Rome as 
soon as possible. I have need of nothing, and Prov- 
idence alone will lead me back. It is possible that 
my sins make me unworthy of seeing Rome again, 
but you may be sure that my successors will recover 
all the States that belong to them." 

What had been the upshot of the conqueror's at- 
tempts on the Eternal City ? He had succeeded no 
better in Rome than in Spain. This hardy gamester, 
who had been so successful at the beginning of his 
career, failed at every point the moment that his luck 
left him. The construction that he had reared at 



THE BEGINNING OF 1814. 301 



the cost of so much blood fell like card-houses. The 
earth crumbled before him. Betrayed by fortune, 
suspicious of his own family, regretting tlie sliort- 
lived crowns he had given to his brothers and his 
brother-in-law, perceiving only too late that the main 
cause of his disasters was that he had set a fruitless 
family ambition above the great principle of nation- 
ality. Napoleon, dissatisfied with himself and Avith 
others, did not like to see his brothers dethroned; 
they were a living reproach to him. This principle 
of nationality, the programme of which he announced 
only at Saint Helena — the application of which, tim- 
idly and incompletely tried by his successor, w^as to 
be so fatal to France — the principle which he had 
failed to recognize throughout his reign, in Holland, 
Germany, Spain, and Italy, created against the win- 
ner of countless battles a coalition of peoples far 
more to be feared than a coalition of kings. 

Ferdinand VII. was to leave Valen^ay too late, and 
Pius VII., Fontainebleau too late. If the Holy 
Father had been restored to his temporal sovereignty 
a few weeks earlier, he would have prevented Murat's 
invasion of the Roman States, he would have pre- 
vented the defection which that brave monarch, 
when he returned in the following year to a feeling 
of his duties towards France and the Emperor, was 
to atone for most heroically. 

Napoleon, when he was about to t;ikc an eternal 
farewell of his wife and son, was overwhelmed with 
the gloomiest thoughts. To whatever side he turned 



302 MARIE LOUISE. 



his eyes, he saw on the horizon nothing bnt clouds as 
black as night, or red as blood. About his tottering 
throne he perceiyed an air rank with a fatal taint of 
decay and treachery. Doubtful of everything, no 
longer forming illusions, he vowed to throw the final 
cast, to conquer or die; but Providence was not to 
consent, and he would have smiled pitifully if any 
one had predicted to him that he would survive the 
catastrophes and humiliations concealed in the imme- 
diate future. It was through his pride that the great 
man had sinned, and it was in his pride that he was 
to be punished. 



XX. 

MARIE Louise's farewell. 

WHEN Napoleon was on the point of setting 
out for the Avar, he consoled himself for all 
his cares and sorrows with seeing his son. But this 
sight brought anguish as well as comfort. What 
future did Providence reserve for the boy? Would 
he be Emperor or an exile? Would his first steps 
be guided by his father, or would he become a 
prisoner of the foreigners ? Would he wield the 
sceptre of the new Charlemagne, or suffer the fate of 
Astyanax ? It was a cruel uncertainty, an enigma of 
fate ! Then the conqueror, knowing by experience 
what a father's love is, possibly repented the barren 
sacrifice of so many young men upon the battlefield. 
Then he was moved by a retrospective pity, and the 
voice of humanity made him quiver. His own suf- 
fering taught him what others had suffered, and 
reminded him of the anguish he had brought on 
other parents, who had known the torture of surviv- 
ing their children. He no longer lovi'd war, wliich 
before had been the object of his ardent passion. 
Instead of preparing new slaughter, he would have 

303 



304 MABIE LOUISE. 



preferred to dry the tears and to heal the wounds, 
making himself loved and blessed. But it was too 
late. The untiring warrior became peaceable when 
peace was no longer possible. There was no other 
solution than bloodshed, and always more bloodshed. 
He who had taken the sword was to perish by the 
sword. Meanwhile his eyes, still full of gloomy 
visions, which had gazed on burning Moscow, on the 
snowfields of Russia, the struggle on the Elster bridge, 
were resting gently on the fair head of the boy who 
looked like an angel. His ears, so long fatigued by 
the roar of shells and muskets, now found delight in 
listening to the first stammering words of infancy. 
He, sated with glory, tired of all the grandeur and 
the misery of the world, sick of the smell of incense, 
already suspected that after all their adulation, his 
courtiers would hurl mud in his face, and depressed 
by all this ingratitude, apostasy, and treachery, he 
became disgusted with human nature, and found his 
only pleasure in the contemplation of innocence. 

The King of Rome was nearly three years old. His 
charming disposition and his precocious intelligence 
were much admired. Madame de Montesquiou, his 
governess, said that he was " proud and sensitive." 
"Proud and sensitive," repeated Napoleon; "that 
is very well. That is the way I like to have him." 
Amid the numberless cares besieging him during the 
troubled days preceding the fatal campaign of 1814, 
the Emperor, in spite of the manifold afflictions that 
tormented him, found time to play with his son. 



MAEIE LOUISE^S FAREWELL. 305 



M. cle Meneval says : "Whether he was busy reading 
an important report, or was sitting at his desk, which 
was hollowed in the middle, with two shelves, like 
wings, on the sides, and was always covered deep 
with papers, when he was signing a despatch, every 
word of which had to be weighed, his son, seated on 
his knees or held against his breast, never left him. 
Being endowed with a Avonderful power of concen- 
trating his attention, he knew how to give his atten- 
tion to the most serious matters while humoringr his 
son's whims. Sometimes he would lay aside his 
great thoughts and lie down on the floor by the side 
of his son, playing with him like another child, eager 
to amuse him and to spare him every annoyance." 

Napoleon never grcAV tired of looking at the little 
King of Rome. A vague foreboding warned him 
that liQ had not long to see him, and he was softened, 
and he wished to inspire others with his OAvn feel- 
ings ; he hoped that the a^^peals of his paternal heart 
would find echoes in others' hearts. Sunday, Janu- 
ary 24, 1814, he assembled at the Tuileries, in the 
Hall of the Marshals, the officers of the National 
Guard which was to defend Paris, and prepared one 
of those moving, pathetic, as well as somewhat 
theatrical scenes, of which he possessed the secret ; 
for no man in the world understood better how to 
strike the imagination and to place himself majes- 
tically before, not merely his contemporaries, but also 
posterity. 

The officers of the National Guard, to the number 



306 MABIE LOUISE. 



of seven or eight hundred, all in uniform, formed in 
a circle around the Hall of the Marshals. At noon 
the Emperor passed through this hall on his way to 
the chapel, according to his habit on Sundays, and 
he was warmly greeted. He did not stop, but pushed 
on to the mass. That oyer, he returned, and took up 
his place in the middle of the hall where the officers 
of the twelve legions of the National Guard of Paris 
had remained. A few moments later, the Empress 
appeared accompanied by Madame de Montesquiou, 
who held the King of Rome in her arms. No one 
expected this ; and the reason of this sudden entrance 
was unknown to all. Napoleon had the little King 
put down ; then, holding him by one hand while his 
mother held him by the other, he made his way to 
the midst of the group of officers of the National 
Guard who lined the Hall of the Marshals; then, 
with a warmth and an emotion which deeply moved 
his hearers, he uttered these solemn words : " Officers 
of the National Guard, I am glad to see you gath- 
ered about me. I am starting to take my place at 
the head of my army. As I leave the capital I 
confide to your protection my wife and my son on 
whom so many hopes rest. I owed you this proof of 
my confidence in return for all those that you have 
never ceased to give me at the most important 
moments of my career. I shall leave without anx- 
iety, since they will be under your faithful guard. 
I leave in your care what is, next to France, the 
dearest thing I have in the world. It may happen 



MARIE LOUISE'S FAREWELL. 307 



that during the coming campaign the enemy may 
find an opportunity to approach your walls. If this 
takes place, remember it can be an affair of no more 
than a few days, and that I shall soon come to your aid. 
I beg of you to remain united and to withstand all 
attempts to divide you. Every means will be em- 
ployed to detach you from the faithful performance 
of your duties ; but I count on your rejection of these 
perfidious temptations." Then Napoleon stopped for 
a moment ; he fixed his eyes on Marie Louise and on 
the King of Rome whom the Empress had taken in 
her arms and showing the Assembly the child whose 
expressive face seemed to correspond with the solem- 
nity of the occasion, he exclaimed, with a voice full 
of emotion, " I entrust her to you, gentlemen ; I 
entrust her to the affection of my faithful city of 
Paris." 

At these words their enthusiasm reached its height ; 
tears filled every eye. In the hall there was not a 
single man who did not seem ready to shed the last 
drop of his blood in behalf of the Imperial family. 

The very men w^ho, the evening before, had been 
harshly criticising the Emperor, forgot their giiefs in 
a moment. They condemned the monarch; they had 
pity for the father. What he had lost as Emperor 
he regained as a man. Politics gave way to humanity. 
Marie Louise, generally cold and self-possessed, was 
overcome by the general emotion and nearly fainted. 
This foreigner was for a moment the living image, 
the symbol of France harassed and distressed. Nape- 



308 MABIE LOUISE. 



leon, seeing that lie was still loved and admired, had 
a momentary return of confidence in himself and his 
star. He fancied himself capable of wonders, as in 
the heroic days of his marvellous career. His genius 
arose to its full height. He dreamed of a brilliant 
revenge, of ovations, and of a real apotheosis. He 
promised himself a return under triumphal arches. 

The Emperor received the high officials after the 
officers of the National Guard. " What struck me 
most," says Count Miot de Melito, " was the language 
of the Senators. Never had they been more obse- 
quious. Among others M. de Laplace, who came 
up to me, spoke of the state of affairs with such 
keen interest, of his devotion to the Emperor, and of 
his confidence in him with such deep emotion, and 
especially of the current rumor of the proclamation 
at Bordeaux in favor of the Bourbons with such 
indignation, that I might have thought that the 
former royal dynasty had no greater enemy, and our 
Emperor no greater friend than he. Could I indeed 
have ever supposed from his language that, as has 
since been affirmed, he had never ceased to love the 
Bourbons in his heart ! " 

Miot de Melito said, speaking of this same recep- 
tion, January 23, 1814 : " The Emperor received the 
officials, to whom he uttered assurances of devotion 
which were soon contradicted. But it was his fate 
to nourish illusions up to the last, and to take for 
sincere protestations of loyalty what were really arti- 
ficial utterances begotten by long practice in servility. 



MABIE LOUISE'S FAREWELL. 309 



As for me, I soon discerned, in all I saw and heard, 
the change that had taken place in this court, at once 
so magnificent and so humble. I recalled the bril- 
liant days after the birth of the King of Rome, and 
compared them with those I was witnessing. Where 
was the herd of Ambassadors from every nation, the 
Princes, the Kings, the courtiers, who, in other and 
different days, crowded this place, and saluted the 
throne, now so insecure ? All that pomp had van- 
ished. Of the crowd of foreigners there remained 
only a few Senators, a handful of German or Italian 
Councillors of State, summoned from the departments 
annexed to France." 

Touching as was the scene of the morning, that 
of the evening was profoundly gloomy. Count Mol- 
lien. Minister of the Treasury, thus describes it: 
" When the Empress had gone away, the Emperor 
detained the Ministers, to whom, he said, he wished 
to announce his fuial preparations. His first words, 
in fact, had all the solemnity of the reading of a 
will ; but after he had sjDoken briefly of the insuffi- 
ciency of the means at his disposal, in S23ite of the 
exertions of his Ministers, to whom he rendered per- 
fect justice, his eye, as if falling by chance on those 
present, lighted up, and as if suddenly inspired, he 
added that he knew very well that he was leaving in 
Paris other enemies than those with whom he was 
going to fight, and that liis absence left the field free 
for them. These insinuations were veiled, but there 
was no possibility of mistaking them. lie grew 



310 MARIE LOUISE. 



more violent when he noticed that this official coolly 
continued his conversation with King Joseph in a 
corner of the room. Count MoUien then spoke to 
the Emperor of the financial condition, and proposed 
measures to prevent an absolute deficit. 'My deai 
man,' said Napoleon, ' if the enemy reaches the gates 
of Paris, the Empire will have ceased to exist.' " 

The same day, Sunday, January 23, 1814, Pope 
Pius yil. left Fontainebleau. He had refused to 
treat with Napoleon, but he had said to the prelate 
charged with proposing the arrangement to him: 
"Assure the Emperor that I am not his enem}^ I 
love France, and when I get to Rome, you will see 
that I shall do everything that is proper." Since 
Cossack bands had already appeared in the neighbor- 
hood of Montereau, Napoleon did not care to leave 
his venerable adversary within reach of a sudden 
attack. But, instead of letting him depart alone and 
free, he had entrusted him to the care of Lagorse, the 
commander of the gens d'armes, who, while seeming 
to carry him back to Rome, was really charged with 
leading him slowly, by a devious route, to Savona, 
where a credit had already been deposited with the 
Receiver General of the Department of Montenotte, 
providing twelve thousand francs a month for the 
support of the Pope. 

The Pope was then still a prisoner. As M. Veuil- 
lot has said : " It was well that the Roman pontiff, 
timid and captive, should nevertheless appear before 
the eyes of the whole world as the only sovereign 



MARIE LOUISE'S FAREWELL. 311 



whom Napoleon could not force to abandon his duty. 
When England invented so many lies and purchased 
so much treachery, when haughty Austria gave the 
hand of an Archduchess to the divorced husband of 
Josephine, this dethroned monarch, this poor priest, 
gazing at his crucifix, after listening to the Imperial 
messages of human omnipotence, replied, ' No ; I will 
not give up my conscience to recover my crown ! 
JVon possumus.' The world had need of this lesson, 
at once haughty and humble." 

At the moment of leaving Fontainebleau, Pius VII., 
who had just heard mass, summoned all the Cardinals 
present in the palace, and spoke to them these words : 
'' On the point of leaving you, without knowing our 
destination, even without knowing whether we sliall 
have the consolation of seeing you again gathered 
about us, we have desired to call you together to 
express our feelings and our intentions. We have 
the firm conviction — and could we think otherwise ? 
— that your conduct, whether you remain togetlier 
or are again scattered, will conform to your position 
and your character. Still, we recommend you all, 
wherever you may be transferred, to act in such a 
way that your attitude and all your actions shall 
express the just grief you feel for the sufferings of 
the church and for the captivity of its head. . . . 
We expressly recommend to you to close your ears 
to any proposition relating to a treaty about spiritual 
and temporal affairs ; for this is our absolute and firm 



312 MABIE LOUISE. 

wish." The Cardinals were touched, and promised 
obedience. Then the Holy Father, after a short 
prayer, went down into the courtyard by the grand 
staircase, by which Napoleon was to come down a 
few weeks later to bid his memorable farewell to the 
Imperial Guard. The venerable old man, calm and 
serene, quietly entered the carriage which was to 
carry him to his unknown destination ; and extend- 
ing his arms through the window, gave a last bless- 
ing to the few spectators who stood mourning his 
departure. 

It was when Pius VII. was leaving Fontainebleau 
that Napoleon was signing the letters patent con- 
ferring the regency upon the Empress. Marie Louise 
took her oath before her husband, at a council com- 
posed of the French Princes, the high officials, and 
the Ministers. At that time she was determined to 
remain faithful to this oath as sovereign, wife, and 
mother. It must be acknowledged that up to the fall 
of the Empire she did nothing blameworthy, and that, 
though she left Paris, it was with great regret and 
in obedience to her husband's formal command. At 
this time her attitude was absolutely correct, and in 
none of the contemporary Memoirs do we find a word 
of criticism of her conduct up to the time of her 
husband's abdication. 

Later she displayed ingratitude, and a lack of the 
devotion which her duty required ; but it would be 
unjust to hold her responsible for the sufferings of 



MABIE LOUISE'S FAREWELL. 813 



France. Her leave-taking from the Emperor, which 
took place at the Tuileries, January 25, 1814, at seven 
in the morning, was very toucliing. She wept pro- 
fusely. Thiers says about this farewell : " Napoleon, 
when he left, unconscious that he was embracing 
them for the last time, hugged tenderly his wife and 
his son. His wife was in tears, and feared she would 
never see him again. She was in fact fated never 
to see him, although the enemy's bullets were not 
to kill him. She would certainly have been much 
sui-prised if she had been told that this husband, then 
the object of all her care, was to die on a distant 
island, in the middle of the ocean, the prisoner of 
Europe, and forgotten by her. As for him, no pre- 
diction would have astonished him, — whether the 
cruelest desertion, the most ardent devotion, — for he 
expected anything from men ; he knew them to the 
core, though he treated them as if he did not know 
what they really were." 

Laying aside his sceptre and his gala dress to put 
on his uniform and his sword, the Emperor became 
a soldier. As Lamartine said : " The most prejudiced 
historian finds him great in this final effort to grasp 
his fleeting fortune. He seemed ten years younger. 
His soul, which had been benumbed by the throne, 
triumphed over the languor of his body." The 
trumpet-call aroused the hero of countless Kattles. 
He seemed back in the days of Areola and Castig- 
lione. But if he had the genius of that time, he 



314 MARIE LOUISE. 



lacked the good fortune. As admirable a tactician 
in the campaign of 1814 as at any period of his 
career, he was to accomplish miracles, but fruitless 
miracles ; and his superhuman efforts proved power- 
less against implacable fate. 



INDEX. 



Allies, make overtures of peace to 
Napoleon, 274; cross the Rhine, 
280. 

Army, grand, of the Russian inva- 
sion, its fate, 96; letters from, 99. 

Austria, Empress of, at the head of 
the party against Napoleon, 152; 
her hatred of Napoleon and 
France, 174. 

Austria, war-feeling in, 235; ulti- 
matum of, 240. 

Bassano, his letter to the Duke of 
Vicenza respecting Napoleon's in- 
tention, 236. 

Bavaria, the King of, joins the 
coalition, 254. 

Bausset, Baron of, brings portrait 
of the King of Rome to Napoleon, 
9; quoted, 20. 

Beauharnais, Prince Eugene, his 
gallantry at the battle of Maro- 
Jaroslawitz, 50. 

Beaumont, Monseigneur de, sent to 
Pius VII. with Napoleon's letter, 
299. 

Beresina, the passage of the, 61. 

Bernadotte at the battle of Leipsic, 
262. 

Bliicher, crosses the Rhine, 280. 

Bonaparte, Jerome, forbidden by 
Napoleon to come to Paris, 291. 

Bonaparte, Joseph, denoimces Na- 
poleon, 291 Metter of, to, 293; ac- 
cepts Napoleon's proposition, 295; 
urges Murat to side with Napo- 
leon, 297. 

Bonaparte, Louis, letter of, to Cau- 
laincourt, on his kingdom, 291. 



Bonaparte, Lucien, on bad terms 

with Napoleon, 291. 
Borodino, battle of, 11. 
Bourbons, the, not considered, 231. 

Cambaceres, Archchancellor, pre- 
sides at the meetings of the minis- 
ters, 2 ; made First Counsellor of 
the Regency, 188; proposes in the 
Senate a draft of two hundred 
and eighty thousand men, 260. 

Cariati, Prince, an agent of Murat, 
297. 

Caulaincourt, see Vicenza, Duke 
of. 

Caroline, Queen of Naples, sends 
Napoleon word of Murat's defec- 
tion, 297. 

Cherbourg, the grand basin at, 
opened by Marie Louise, 249. 

Chateaubriand, sarcastic reference 
of, to Napoleon's 2*.Hh bulletin, 
80; his comment on the self- 
effacement of the Senate, 8H; 
quoted, 270. 

Comedie Franraise, the actors of, 
at Dresden, 214. 

Concordat of Fontainebleau, arti- 
cles of, 110; signed by Pius VII., 
118. 

Constant, Memoirs of. quoted, 03. 

Daru, Count, advises Napoleon to 
winter in Moscow, 23, 

Davout, Marshal, illusions of, re- 
specting the Russian campaign, 
19, 27; his unshaken courage, 
98. 

Duroc, General, death of, 209. 

315 



316 



INDEX. 



Duruy, M. Albert, his article on 
Malet's conspiracy, 45, 47. 

Eble', General, saves the army at 
the passage of the Beresina, 61. 

Esterhazy, Prince, to represent 
Francis II. at the coronation of 
the King of Kome, 161. 

Fain, Baron, his descriptions of the 
retreat, quoted, 51, 54. 

Fichte, Professor, quotation from, 
269. 

Floret, tries to reassure Marie 
Louise, 196. 

Francis II., his desire for peace, 
103 ; letter of, to Napoleon on the 
proposition for peace, 106; not 
hostile to Napoleon, 154; greatly 
disturbed by the course of events, 
157 ; sends General Bubna to Na- 
poleon after the victory of Liit- 
zen, 204. 

Frederick William, King, a hostage 
in his own capital, 125 ; had no 
part in General York's defection, 
131 ; hesitating, 132 ; sends Napo- 
leon assurances of his fidelity, 133. 

Goethe's conversation with Napo- 
leon in 1808, 224. 

Guidal, General, released from 
prison by Malet, 36 ; shot, 44. 

Hatzfeld, Prince, commissioned by 
Frederick William to assure Na- 
poleon of his fidelity, 133; and 
to broach the matrimonial pro- 
ject, 135; failure of his mission, 
139. 

Haussonville, Count d', quoted, 299. 

Hulin, General, arrested by Malet, 
39. 

Korner, quotation from his Lyre 

and Sword, 269. 
Kremlin, Napoleon in the, 14. 
Kutusoff, General, not appreciated 

by the Russians, 61. 



Lacipede, the Count of, replies to 
the address of Marie Louise to 
the Senate, 26. 

Lacordaire's Conferences de Tou- 
louse quoted, 215. 

Lahorie, General, released from 
prison by Malet, 36 ; shot, 44. 

Leipsic, the battle of, 262 ; the pas- 
sage of the Elster, 264. 

Lefebvre, M. Edouard, reports the 
state of things in Prussia, 139. 

Liitzen, Napoleon's victory at, 197 ; 
celebration of, 200. 

Macdonald, General, letter of, to 
General Berthier on York's de- 
fection, 131. 

Malet, General Charles Fran9ois de, 
32; conspiracy of, 33 et seq.; 
collapse of the conspiracy, 40; 
shot, 44 ; Duruy's article on, 45 ; 
Thiers's views of, 47 ; his provis- 
ional government, 47; his con- 
spiracy the prologue of the Royal- 
ist movement of 1814, 47. 

Marcolini Palace, Napoleon estab- 
lished in, 213; Metternich's con- 
ference with him at, 217. 

Marie Louise, return of, to Saint 
Cloud, 1 ; her timidity, 2 ; mourns 
the absence of her husband, 3; 
surprised by the arrival of the 
Guards at Saint Cloud after 
Malet's conspiracy, 41 ; receives a 
letter from her father respecting 
peace, and sends him a breakfast 
service, 107 ; congratulates Pius 
VII. on the signing of the Con- 
cordat, 118; her letter to her 
father thereupon, 119; becomes 
regent of France, 187 ; her func- 
tions, 188 ; her dowry settled, 190 ; 
her sadness at Napoleon's depart- 
ure, 192 ; receives the Diplomatic 
Body at Saint Cloud, 193 ; at Notre 
Dame at the celebration of the bat- 
tle of Liitzen, 200 ; writes to her 
father in the prospect of peace, 
203; thinks she is at the end of 



INDEX. 



317 



her trials, 211 ; joins Napoleon at 
Mayence, 22(i et seq.; not with- 
out uneasiness, 231 ; returns to 
Saint Cloud, 232; her melan- 
choly, 234; her birthday cele- 
brated, 247; presides over tlie 
opening of the basin at Cher- 
bourg, 249 ; letter of, to her father, 
255; makes a solemn appeal to 
French patriotism, 258; receives 
deputations from six cities, 271 ; 
filled with gloom, 277; loyal to 
her husband, but ignorant of the 
real situation, 289 ; made regent, 
312; bids farewell to her husband, 
313. 
Maro-Jaroslawitz, battle of, 50. 
Maury, Abbe, his address to Marie 
Louise at the celebration of the 
battle of Liitzen, 200. 
Melito, Count Miot de, quoted, 287, 

388. 
Meneval, Baron of, made private 

secretary to Marie Louise, 187. 
Metteruich, Count, despatch of, 
concerning a general peace, 104; 
attacked by the anti-French fac- 
tion in Vienna, 153 ; modifies his 
attitude towards France after the 
defection of the Prussian contin- 
gent, 155 ; his programme, 157 ; 
on the Russian alliance, 161 ; the 
opposition to him in the Austrian 
court and government, IGG; his 
reception of Narbonne, 174; 
alarmed at the progress of revo- 
lutionary ideas, 177; satisfaction 
of, after the battle of Liitzen, 207 ; 
his account of his conference with 
Napoleon at the Marcolini Palace, 
217 et seq.; discrepancies in his 
accounts of this conference, 220; 
warns Narbonne that Austria 
would join the allies after August 
10, 223; his talk with tbe Duke 
of Vicenza, 227; communicates 
Napoleon's overtures to Francis 
II., and transmits Austria's ulti- 
matum to the Duke of Vicenza, 



240; proposes to the allies over- 
tures of peace with Napoleon, 275. 

MoUieu, Comit, describes the scene 
of the evening before Napoleon's 
departure, 309. 

Monitexir, Napoleon's bulletins in 
the, 31, 69; article in, on Malct's 
conspiracy, 45 ; the 29th buUetiu 
in, announcing the disasters of 
the army, 78, 84; Napoleon's re- 
turn announced, 85; the para- 
graph in, with regard to Napoleon, 
110; describes the celebration of 
the battle of Liitzen, 202; an- 
nouncement in, of the reception 
by the Emperor of the Legislative 
Body, 284. 

Montesquioil, INIajor, sent forward 
by Napoleon to inform Europe of 
the events of the Russian cam- 
paign, 71; arrives at Paris, 80; 
carries the news of the victory of 
Bautzen to Marie Louise, 208. 

Moreau, has his legs shot otT, 252. 

Morfontaine, Joseph Bonaparte's 
court at, 291. 

Moscow, arrival of the French ar- 
my at, 13 ; burning of, 15 ; the 
exodus from, 27. 

Murat, King, defection of, 21XJ; 
joins Austria against France, 
2i)8. 

Murat, Caroline, sides with Aus- 
tria, 29G. 

Narbonne, General, equanimity of, 
during the retreat from Moscow, 
111 ; Villemaiue's opinion of, 109; 
Napoleon's fondness for, 170; a 
model diplomatist, 171 ; report of 
his first interview with Francis 
II., 172; his eyes opened to the 
true state of things, 175; pre- 
dicts Metterniih's policy, 17t'.; 
reports the hostile spirit which 
animates Vienna society, 179; 
hopes for the neutrality of Aus- 
tria, 180; informs Napoleon of 
the truth regarding Francis II., 



318 



INDEX. 



181; reports the opposition in 
Vienna to the Emperor's posi- 
tion, 195; reports Metternich's 
satisfaction, 207; his prophecies 
verified, 235. 
Napoleon governs his empire from 
the heart of Kussia, 2 ; his birth- 
day celebrated in Paris and on 
the Dneiper, 6; his sluggishness 
at the battle of Borodino, 12 ; en- 
ters Moscow, 13; forced by the 
fire to leave, 16; returns to the 
Kremlin, 18; his error with re- 
gard to Moscow, 22; his blun- 
ders, 24; his indecision, 25; de- 
cides to abandon Moscow, 26 ; his 
bulletins in the Moniteur, 31; 
narrowly escapes being made 
prisoner, 51; hears of Malet's 
conspiracy, 53; feels that all is 
lost, 60; decides to return to 
Paris, 65 ; his deceptive bulletins, 
69; his journey to Paris, 63 
et seq.; letter of, to Francis II., 
74 ; his 29th bulletin, 78 ; arrives 
at Paris, 81 ; receives the Minis- 
ters, 82 : his reply to the address 
of the Senate, 90; receives a dep- 
utation from the Department of 
the Tiber, 92; the Prefect of the 
Seine makes his address, 93; lis- 
tens only to flatterers, 95 ; his de- 
termination to have all or noth- 
ing, 109 ; devotes himself to hunt- 
ing, 111 ; goes to Fontainebleau to 
confer with Pius VII., 112 ; letter 
of, to Francis II., respecting the 
Concordat, 119; his letter to the 
Bishop oi Nantes on the papal 
sovereignty, 121; his letter to 
Frederick William on the Prus- 
sian contingent, 126; sets too 
much importance on his marriage 
with Marie Louise, 146; imagines 
that Austria would continue his 
ally, 159; recalls Count Otto 
from Vienna and sends the Count 
of Narbonne in his place, 160; 
desires war, 167 ; Ms estimate of 



the Count of Narbonne, 171; and 
of the aristocratic element in di- 
Ijlomacy, 171; creates an army 
of three hundred thousand in 
three months, 183; his haughty 
language, 183; imagines that 
Francis II. will never abandon his 
daughter's cause, 184; visits the 
Invalides, 186; decides to make 
the Empress regent, 187; marks 
out for the Empress her line of 
conduct in everything, 189; letter 
of, to Francis IL, 191 ; leaves to 
take command of his armies, 192 ; 
his victory at Liitzen, 197; in- 
forms Francis II. of the victory of 
Liitzen, 198; letters of, to Francis 
II., 205 ; wins the battle of Baut- 
zen, 208; his emotion on Duroc's 
death, 210; unable to profit by 
his experience, 210; decrees a 
monument on the Alps, 212 ; es- 
tablishes himself in the Marcolini 
Palace at Dresden, 213; ]3refers 
comedy to tragedy, 214; his long 
conference with Metternich, 217 ; 
his conversation with Goethe in 
1808, 224 ; sends for Marie Louise 
to join him at Mayence, 225; 
leaves Mayence eager for war, 
232 ; his despatch to the Duke of 
Vicenza respecting Austria's last 
word, 238 ; receives the Austrian 
ultimatum, 240; sends a proposi- 
tion to Prague, 242 ; his birthday 
celebrated August 10, 242 ; sends 
his ultimatum to Caulaincourt, 
245; gives him full power and 
concedes Austria's demands, 247 ; 
his birthday celebrated in Paris, 
248; fights the battle of Dresden, 
252; feels that he is losing, 253; 
fights the battle of Leipsic, 262 
etseq.; his first defeat, 265; re- 
flections on his course, 265; his 
remal-ks on the campaign at 
Saint Helena, 267; his despon- 
dency, 271 ; sends captured bat- 
tle-flags to Marie Louise, 273; 



INDEX. 



310 



returns to Paris, 274; receives 
overtures of peace from the 
allies, 274; gives au evasive an- 
swer, 276 ; decides too late to ac- 
cept, 276 ; his address to the Sen- 
ate, 279; adjourns the Legislative 
Body, 283 ; his furious address to 
the Legislative Body, 284; his 
confidential admissions, 286 ; dis- 
trusts his Ministers, 288; calm 
and majestic in his demeanor, 
288 ; on bad terms with his broth- 
ers, 291 ; his proposition to Joseph 
Bonaparte, 294, 295 ; restores the 
Roman States to the Pope, 299; 
his love for his son, 305; scene 
with the National Guard and the 
King of Rome, 305 ; bids farewell 
to his wife and son, 313. 
Ney, Marshal, protests against 
Napoleon's sluggishness at Boro- 
dino, 120 ; commends the bravery 
of the French conscripts, 198. 

Otto, Count, his letter on Malet's 
conspiracy, 45 ; hands Francis IL 
Napoleon's letter containing the 
Concordat, 120; French Ambassa- 
dor at Vienna, 146; a persona 
grata at the Austrian court, 146; 
informs the Duke of Bassano of 
the anti-French feeling in Aus- 
tria, 147; reports the offer of 
Francis II. of intervention with 
Russia, 148; letter of, to Napo- 
leon on the situation in Vienna 
after the Russian disaster, 150; 
reports that the prevailing senti- 
ment is in favor of abandoning 
France, 151 ; reports Metternich's 
changed attitude, 155 ; writes of 
the Austrian Emperor's upright 
character, 159; on the coronation 
of Marie Louise and the King of 
Rome, 159 ; recalled from Vienna, 
160; reports Metternich's words 
on the Russian alliance, 161; re- 
ports alarm about revolutionary 
tendencies, 163; and the antag- 



onism throughout Europe to 
France, 165; his wise counsels, 
168. 

Pasquier, M., arrested by Malet's 
conspirators, 37. 

Pius VII., a prisoner at Fontaiiic- 
bleau, 112; visited by Napoleon, 
114; induced to accept tlie Con- 
cordat, 116; his anguish, 117; 
signs the Concordat, 118; repents 
his signing tlie Concordat, 122; 
recants, 123; refuses Napoleon's 
offer of the Roman States, 300; 
leaves Fontainebleau, 310. 

Poniatowski, Prince, drowned in 
the Elster, 264. 

Prague, Congress of, 23(k 

Prussia, feeling in, towards Napo- 
leon, 127, 129; rising of, against 
Napoleon, 143; war declared be- 
tween France and, 145. 

Prussian court, the situation of 
the, in 1812, 125; contemplates a 
matrimonial alliance with Napo- 
leon's family. 133; secret alliance 
of, with Russia, 140. 

Retreat from Russia, the. 50 et soq. ; 
horrors of, 55; anecdote of, 57; 
General do Se'gur's account of, 
59. 

Rome, the King of, 4; portrait 
of, brought to Napoleon in Rus- 
sia, 9 ; his prayer for peace, 10« ; 
Napoleon's farewell of, 303; his 
character, 304. 

Rovigo, Duke of, arrested by Ma- 
let's conspirators, 37 ; laughed at 
on account of his arrest, 42; 
closeted Avith Napoleon, S.3. 

Russia, court of, makes a secret 
alliance with Prussia, 140. 

Russian army entt-rs Bohemia Au- 
gust 10, 244. 

Russian invasion, array of, its fate, 
96. 

liussian campaign, the early dith- 
culties of, •"• : uneasiness in France 



320 



INDEX. 



concerning, 29; retreat begun, 
51 ; cold weather begins, 54. 

Saint Aignan, Baron of, comes to 
Paris with an overture of peace 
from the allies, 274. 

Saint-Amand, General, letter from, 
describing his experiences in the 
Russian campaign, 99. 

Saint-Andre, Jean Bon, dines with 
Napoleon, 228; his curious re- 
mark to Count Beugnot, 230. 

Saint Cloud, Marie Louise's return 
to, 1 ; Bliicher at, 7. 

Saint Marsan, Count of, French 
Minister at Berlin, 126 ; report of, 
on the King's reception of Napo- 
leon's letter, 127; and on the state 
of affairs in Prussia, 127, 129; 
awakened from his delusions, 
130; receives the King's dis- 
avowal of General York's defec- 
tion, 132; his letter concerning 
the Prussian matrimonial project, 
135, 136 ; his report of Baron von 
Hardenberg's protestations, 137; 
reports that Prussia is about to 
abandon France, 140; letter of, 
on the Russian alliance, 141 ; re- 
ports the alliance publicly an- 
nounced, 144. 

Schwarzenberg, Prince, does not 
dare to tell Napoleon the truth 
about the Austrian situation, 190 ; 
informs the Empress of the pos- 
sibility of Austria's enmity, 195 ; 
eager for war, 235. 

Segur, General de, his story of the 
retreat, 59, Heine's description of 
it, 59; quoted, 9G; on the Ta- 
gendhiind, 269; describes the in- 
vasion of France, 280. 

Senate, presented to Napoleon on 
his return from Russia, 86; speech 
of the President of, 87. 

Senators, obsequiousness of, 308. 



Sicilies, the Two, the two queens of, 
296. 

Soulier, Colonel, made a participa- 
tor in Malet's conspiracy, 35; 
shot, 44. 

Spain, Napoleon's negotiations 
with, too late, 292. 

Stein, Baron von, and General York 
stir up Prussia against France, 
137. 

Talleyrand, presents the Senators 
to Napoleon on his return from 
Russia, 86; declines the port- 
folio of Foreign Affairs, 277. 

Thiers's view of Malet's conspiracy, 
47; describes Napoleon's de- 
meanor after Duroc's death, 210 ; 
quoted, 216; his account of Met- 
ternich's conference with Napo- 
leon at Dresden, 218. 

Tolstoi, his War and Peace, quoted, 
23, 59. 

Vaudamme, General, defeated at 
Culm, 253. 

Vicenza, the Duke of (Caulain- 
court), accompanies Napoleon to 
Paris, 66; urges Napoleon to 
make peace, 232; reports the con- 
dition of affairs at Prague, 237; 
has a secret interview with Met- 
ternich concerning Napoleon's 
confidential overtures, 239; letter 
of, to Napoleon regarding Aus- 
tria's ultimatum, 241; his anx- 
iety, 243; communicates Napo- 
leon's proposition to Metternich, 
244; receives Napoleon's ultima- 
tum, 245; letter of, to Napoleon, 
246; appointed Minister of For- 
eign Affairs, 277. 

York, General, takes his corps to 
the Russian side, 130; his letter 
to Frederick William, 131. 



Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston. 
Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston. 



FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE 
FRENCH COURT. 

Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers. 

V\7ITHIN the past few years M. Imbert de Saint- 
Amand has written a series of vohimes wliich 
have made him one of the most popular authors of 
France. Each has for its nucleus some portion of the 
life of one of the eminent women who have presided 
over or figured at the French court, either at Ver- 
sailles or the Tuileries. But though thus largely 
biographical and possessing the interest inseparable 
from personality, the volumes are equally pictures of 
the times they describe. He is himself saturated with 
the literature and history of the period, and what 
mainly distinguishes his books is the fact that they 
are in considerable part made up of contempi^rary 
letters and memoirs, so that the reader hears the 
characters themselves speak, and is brought into the 
closest imaginary contact with them. Moreover, the 
complexion of the mosaic thus cleverly mortised is 
familiar rather than heroic. The historian is not- 
above gossip in its good sense, and the way in whicn 
the life of the time and of its distinguished person- 
ages is depicted is extremely intimate as well as vivid 
and truthful. 

The first volumes to appear, rendered into particu- 
larly idiomatic English by Mr. Thomas Sergeant 
Perry, whose accomplishments as a translator are well 
known, relate to Marie Antoinette, Josephine as wife 
of the First Consul, and Marie Louise. They give a 
vivid representation of the momentous times imme- 
diately before, during, and after the epoch of the 
Revolution. Probably no times in any country were 



ever so picturesque, so crowded with events, and so 
peopled with striking characters. The characteristics of 
the ancient regime, the occupations of the courtiers at 
Versailles and other incidents of the old order of things 
tottering to its fall, are grouped effectively around the 
sympathetic figure of Louis Sixteenth's queen. Josephine 
is taken as the centre of the new society that issued from 
the disorganization wrought by the Revolution, and in 
"The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise," we 
are led behind the scenes and shown the domestic life as 
well as the splendid court pomp of the world's Conqueror 
at the acme of his career. 



The Wife of the First Consul. By Imbert de 
Saint-Amand. Translated by Thomas Sergeant 
Perry. 

The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise. By 
the same. 

Marie x\ntoinette and the End o^f^ t^he Old Regime. 
By the same 

Citizeness Bonaparte. 

Marie Louise and the Decadence of the Empire. 

The Court of the Empress Josephine. 

Each wiih Portrait. 12mo. $1 .25 per volume. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

PUBLISHERS, 
?43=T45 Broadway, Nevst York: 



The First American Edition 



MEMOIRS OF 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 

By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE 

His Private Secretary 
With 34 Full-page Portraits and Other Illustrations 

Edited by Col. R. W. PHIPPS. New and Revised Edition 



The Set, 4 Vols., 12mo, Cloth, in a Box, $5.00 

Characteristic bindings in Half Morocco and Half Calf, specially designed 

for this work, can now be supplied 
The Set, 4 Vols., in a box, Half Morocco, gilt top, . . . $8.00 

" " " Half Calf, " ... 10.00 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers 
NEW YORK 



FOR sixty years Bourrienne's "Memoirs of Napoleon" 
has been a standard authority to which every one 
has turned for a graphic, entertaining picture of 
the man as he appeared to his intimate friend and Secre- 
tary. Bourrienne, who had been the friend and com- 
panion of Napoleon at school, became his Secretary in 
1797 and remained in this confidential position till 1802. 
His " Memoirs " has heretofore been accessible only in 
the English editions. It is now proposed to publish 
immediately in a popular Library Edition, in four i2mo 
volumes, an exact reprint of the latest English edition. 
This American edition will contain the thirty-four por- 
traits and other illustrations of the original, together with 
all the other features that give distinction to the work — 
the chronology of Napoleon's life, the prefaces to the 



BOURRIENNE'S ''NAPOLEONS 



several editions, the author's introduction, and the addi- 
tional matter which supplements Bourrienne's work, an 
account of the important events of the Hundred Days, 
of Napoleon's surrender to the English, and of his resi- 
dence and death at St. Helena, with anecdotes and illus- 
trative extracts from contemporary Memoirs. The per- 
sonality of one of the greatest figures in history is placed 
before the reader with remarkable fidelity and dramatic 
power by one who was the Emperor's confidant and the 
sharer of his thoughts and fortunes. The picture of the 
man Napoleon is of fascinating interest. Besides this, 
the book is full of the most interesting anecdotes, bon 
mots, character sketches, dramatic incidents, and the 
gossip of court and camp at one of the most stirring 
epochs of history, taken from contemporary Memoirs and 
incorporated in the work by the editors of the different 
editions. 



List of Portraits, Etc, 



NAPOLEON I. 
LETITIA RAMOLINO 
THE EMPRESS JOSEPH- 
INE 
EUGENE BEAUHARNAIS 
GENERAL KL^BER 
MARSHAL LANNES 
TALLEYRAND 
GENERAL DUROC 
MURAT, KING OF NAPLES 
GENERAL DESAIX 
GENERAL MOREAU 

HORTENSE BEAUHAR- 
NAIS 

THE EMPRESS JOSEPH- 
INE 

NAPOLEON I. 



THE DUG D'ENGHIEN 
GENERAL PICHEGRU 
MARSHAL NEY 
CAULAINCOURT, DUKE 
OF VICENZA 

MARSHAL DAVOUST 
CHARGE OF THE CUIR- 
ASSIERS AT EYLAU 
GENERAL JUNOT 
MARSHAL SOULT 

THE EMPRESS MARIA 

LOUISA 
GENERAL LASALLE 
COLORED MAP SHOW- 
ING NAPOLEON'S DO- 
MINION 

THE EMPRESS MARIA 
LOUISA 



MARSHAL MASSENA 

MARSHAL MACDONALD 

FAC-SiMILE OF THE EM- 
PEROR'S ABDICATION 
IN 1814 

NAPOLEON I. 

MARSHAL SOUCHET 

THE DUKE OF WELLING- 
TON 

PLANS OF BATTLE OF 
WATERLOO 

MARSHAL BLUCHER 

MARSHAL GOUVION ST. 
CYR 

MARSHAL NEY 

THE KING OF ROME 

GENERAL BESSIERES 



BOURRTENNI'^S " NAPOLEOXr 



''If you want something to read, both interesting and 
amusing, get the M(^moircs de Bourriennc. These are the only 
authentic Memoirs of Napoleon ivhich Jiavc yet appeared. The 
style is not brilliant, but that only makes them the more trust- 
worthy.'' — Prince Metternich. 

**The writer was a man of uncommon penetration, 
and he enjoyed opportunities for intimate knowledge of 
Napoleon's life and character sucli as no otlicr person 
possessed ; and the liveliness of his style renders the 
Memoirs interesting reading from the first page to the 
last. The volumes are enriched with a larcfe number of 
excellent portraits." — The Academy. 



'&' 



"It is a brilliant picture of Napoleon as lie appean^d 
in his daily life to one who held the unique position of 
friend, Minister and Secretary, depicting tlie personality 
of the Emperor with extraordinary vividness and truth- 
fulness. It is impossible not to recognize the gicat 
value of these Memoirs." — New York Times. 

^^ M. de Bourrienne shows us the hero of Marengo and 
Austerlitz in his night-gown and slippers — with a trait de 
plume he, in a hundred instances, places the real man before 
us, with all of his personal habits and peculiarities of manner, 
temper and conversation.'' — From the Preface. 



THE SET, 4 HOLS., 12M0, IN A BOX. $5.00. 






\ 






Ibfvp'^Q 



